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Country Homes and Gardens 
of Moderate Cost 



Country Homes and Gardens 
of Moderate Cost 



TWO HUNDRED ILLUSTRATIONS 

Plans and Photographs of Houses 
and Gardens costing from $800 to 
$6,000 from designs by well-known 
architects. With practical discussions 
on the building and furnishing of 
the home by authoritative writers. 



Edited by 

CHARLES FRANCIS OSBORNE 

Professor in the School of Architecture, University of Pennsylvania 



THE JOHN C. WINSTON COMPANY, PUBLISHERS 

PHILADELPHIA 



Two Cooles Received 
JUL 1^90? 

Cofivright Entry 

h.^i'iia. xxcNo, 

COPY B. 






i A 




COPYRIGHT, 1907 
BY 

THE JOHN C. WINSTON COMPANY 



Table of Contents 



Chapter I. 

Choosing a Site for the House 

By the Editor 7 

Chapter II. 

Choosing a Style for the House 

By Frank Miles Day, President of the American Institute of 
Architects. With Illustrations 21 

Chapter III. 

Choosing Simple Materials for the House 

By WiUiam L. Price. With Illustrations 33 

Chapter IV. 

Fireproofing the House 

By Emile G. Perrot. With Illustrations 49 

Chapter V. 

The Interior Finish and Furnishing of the Small House 

By Margaret Greenleaf. With Illustrations 67 

Chapter VI. 

Planting about the Home 

By W. C. Egan. With Illustrations 92 

Chapter VII. 

The Small Garden 

By John W. Hall loi 

Chapter VIII. 

What Six Thousand Dollars Will Do 

By W. P. R. Pember. With Illustrations 104 

Chapter IX. 

Some Hints on Wall Decoration 

By Leila Mechlin 107 




\ 



List of Illustrations with Brief Descriptive Text 

Exteriors, Interiors and Plans of Small Houses 
and Plans of Gardens 



A Suburban House at Wyoming, N. J. 

J. W. Dow, Architect I 

A Cottage at Wyoming, N. J. 

J. W. Dow, Architect 2 

A House for Eight Hundred Dollars 4 

A Simply Furnished Farmhouse in Montgomery County, Pa 12 

Swarthmore Lodge, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania 

Charles Barton Keen and Frank Mead, Architects 15 

A House on a Twenty-five Foot Lot 

Lawrence Visscher Boyd, Architect 30 

"Sonnenschein," Westchester, N. Y. 

William H. Beers, Architect 31 

A Summer Home on a Farm 

Sketches by Elmer Gra\- 42 

A Suburban House in Chicago 

Handy & Cady, Architects 44 

A Suburban House at Germantown, Pennsylvania 

Alfred Cookman Cass, Architect 45 

A California Bungalow 

Willis Polk, Architect 56 

A Cottage Built of Stucco 59 

A Dutch Colonial House 

Walter P. Crabtree, Architect 64 

Two Small Houses 

SeAmour E. Locke and Charles E. Patch, Architects 65 

Cottage at Brantwood, Short Hills, N. J. 

Rossiter &: Wright. Architects 66 



Seacoast Bungalows 77 

"Aubrey," Whitemarsh, Pennsylvania 

Cope & Stewardson, Architects 81 

Redcrest Cottage, Guilford, England 

Illustrations bv Wetherill P. Trout 83 

Cottages at Roland Park, Baltimore, Md 85 

A Long Island Garden and Cottage 

Grosvenor Atterbuiy, Architect 97 



A Suburban Home 

Wilson Eyre, Architect 98 

A Dutch Colonial House 

E. G. W. Dietrich, Architect 106 

A New Jersey Cottage 

George T. Pearson, Architect 108 

Some English Suburban Houses 

H. T. Buckland & H. Farmer, Architects 109 

The Old Red Rose Inn of "Stoke Pogis," Villa Nova, Pennsylvania 113 

Ornamental Hedges 

J. Franklin Meehan 119 




A Suburban House at Wyoming, N. J. 

/. IV. Dow, Architect 

AN ideally homelike, inexpensive house, built of brick and stucco, and designed in a general way on the lines of an 
English suburban cottage. The house is finished in soft wood, and has every modern convenience, including hot 
water heating, electricity, gas, and the most approved open plumbmg. 





AS SEEN FROM NEXT DOOR 

The narrow end of the iiouse not shown faces the street 




Plan of the Ground Floor 



Plan of the Second Floor 



A Cottage at Wyoming, N. J. 

/. IV. Dow, Architect 




THE GARDEN FRONT 



^ I HIS charmingly rural cottage is adapted for execution in any 



1 



local stone, preferably field stone. The roof is of shingles, 



and the exterior woodwork should be painted some dark color 
to harmonize with the coloring of the stone used. 



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Bed Room 



Mall 



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Bed Room 



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Sewing 
Room 



Bed Room 

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Plan of the Second Floor 



Plan of the Ground Floor 



A Cottage at Wyoming, N. J. 



Interior Views 

of 

The Wyoming Cottage 

/. W. Dow, Architect 




WINDOW SEAT IN THE DINING ROOM 





GENERAL VIEW OF THE LIVING-ROOM 



THE LIVING-ROOM FIREPLACE 



THE interior woodwork of this cottage is poplar. It lias never been painted or treated in any way, so that the natural color remains, 
although darkened considerably through several years. The walls are finished in old-fashioned two coat plaster with the browning 
floated to a finish. The agreeable texture of the walls, with a peculiar soft tint derived from the color of the sand used has not been changed, 
and walls and the unpainted woodwork harmonize admirably. The Hoors are of \ inch quartered oak and against this background 
show the curtains and upholstery in a kind of neutralized green. It is this combination which gives the key to the prevailing color effects 
through the cottage. Most of the furniture is of light colored wood. The long settle with spindle back and arms before the fireplace was 
especially built to stand where it does. There is a simple wainscot in wood with a projecting cap to form a narrow ledge which completely 
encircles the first story, except the kitchen. The tour-Je-force, is perhaps, the bow window with its cushion seat in the dining-room. 



A House for Eight Hundred Dollars 




THE ENTRANCE FRONT 




Floor Plan 



NO type of house lends itself so readily to every condition of pocket-book as 
the bungalow. In moderate climates it adapts itself to every season 
with very inexpensive construction, making an acceptable all-the-year-round 
house. The accompanying illustrations show a California bungalow which was 
built for ;^8oo in the Sierra Madre foot-hills. The foundation of the house has 
posts set on blocks of cement, which are covered by planed boards nailed 
horizontally. The upper frame work of the house is covered with boards 
placed vertically, and the joints are covered by a narrow strip of wood. The 
eaves of the roof project 40 inches and the roof is shingled. The house is not 
plastered. The planed side of the covering boards form a substitute for inside 
finish. Stains have been applied to these boards, producing very charming 
effects, as the wood is handsomely grained. The ceilings are finished in the 
same way as the side walls. The outdoor veranda or dining-room is 10 feet 
wide and 26 feet long, and is shaded by an awning supported by a gas pipe 
frame; the awning, however, is seldom used. The house is complete and 
modern in every respect, having the best of plumbing throughout. Most of 
the furniture in the house is hand-made from arts and crafts designs, and 
corresponds admirably with the rustic interior finish. Indian blankets, with 
muchjcolor in^the'pillows and curtains make the interior exceedingly attractive. 



A House for Eight Hundred Dollars 




AN OUTDOOR DINING-ROOM 




AN INDOOR LIVING-ROOM 




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I 



Choosing a Site for the House 



The Editor 



'TpHE first step in the direction of making a 
-*- home is usually the choice of a site. Usually 
because, unless we propose to buy a home ready 
made and attempt the always ungrateful task of 
adapting ourselves to it as we find it fashioned by 
other hands and for other purposes than our own, the 
place for the house must be decided upon before we 
can definitely consider the house itself. This is the 
basic principle in home building. The house and 
its site are one and inseparable, and the former cannot 
be judged or discussed in any terms of common sense 
apart from the latter. Were we disposed, from lack 
of previous consideration, to question this law, let us 
imagine the middle house of a city block transported 
to a country hilltop, or a residence of the suburban 
type placed endwise toward the sea, or a small coun- 
try cottage set down upon a city lot fifty feet square, 
and the grosser incongruities will be instantly appar- 
ent. But there is a finer and more intimate relation 
between house and ground than this, in which each 
peculiarity and characteristic of the site is taken 
advantage of in the arrangement of the plan and the 
treatment of the exterior, and the whole becomes so 
welded together as to be inconceivable apart. This 
principle is elsewhere fully illustrated in this book by 
photographs from actual practice. To avoid con- 
fusion, however, it will be well first to agree upon 
a definite meaning for some half dozen words which 
must constantly recur. 

A moment's consideration leads to the conclusion 
that houses, with respect to their site, fall of necessity 
into definitely separated classes. The usual designa- 
tion of such classes is city, suburban, rural. But in 
dealing with the subject in that quasi-scientific spirit 
of inquiry which is required for our purpose, we must 
be a little more exact, and will therefore assume the 
following classification: 

I . The Urban House, The type which is most 
characteristic of city conditions, i. e. between twc 
party walls, with free light and air only at front and 
rear, or at the narrower ends of the rectangle which 
may be supposed to represent the lot. This is the 
most sophisticated and least hygienic of all types of 
the home, and requires most careful study to mini- 



mize these adverse conditions, as will be later pointed 
out in detail. When we speak of city houses, there- 
fore, we will use that term in its usual sense, indica- 
tive of any house built within city limits, since, 
as we shall presently see, many different types may 
be, and are, so built. 

2. The Semi-detached House. Known in Phila- 
delphia as the side-yard house. This is an inter- 
mediate type between the urban and the suburban. 
It has one party wall in common with its next door 
neighbor on one side, but is detached on the opposite 
side, having free light and air on front, rear and one 
of the longer sides. It is adapted to, and originated 
in, the commercial development of city property 
units which are too large, economically, for one whol- 
ly detached house, and too small, physically, for two. 
When such units are generously divided and well 
planned with ample room between the pairs of houses, 
this type is an excellent and economical one; but it 
often appears, in the hands of speculative dealers, 
as a thoroughly decadent variant of the normal type, 
having but five or six feet between the windows of 
adjoining pairs. 

Under such conditions life becomes well-nigh in- 
tolerable. The domestic economy of^ne's adjoin- 
ing neighbor is freely displayed by sight and sound to 
our reluctant senses, as is ours to his. This condi- 
tion is capable of some mitigation by a careful study 
of the window spacing in the opposite walls, but 
hundreds ot such houses display crass unconscious- 
ness of the most elementary conditions of civilized 
existence; having the windows placed precisely 
opposite each other. Such houses are designed and 
built by men whose previous habits of life wholly 
unfit them for the comprehension of such matters, 
and to whom such criticism as this would probably 
appear absurd. 

3. The Suburban House. This term is used in a 
restricted sense to indicate the type developed in the 
outlying portions of a city, away from the more con- 
gested centres, where the price of land is not pro- 
hibitive of detached houses of moderate cost. 
Under such conditions the lot will assume somewhat 



8 



Choosing a Site for the House 



the shape of the urban lot, decidedly longer than wide 
with the narrower frontage on the street, but with 
free light and air on all four sides. To properly 
develop such houses they must, as in the case of the 
semi-detached type, not be built so close together 
as to prove a mutual annoyance. It is usually best 
that the house be placed well to one side of the lot 
with a maximum southern exposure or after that, 
an eastern. One of the narrower sides toward the 
north is well, but western exposures, especially of 
the longer sides of the house, should be avoided. 
This question of exposure, or aspect as it is technical- 
ly termed, will be fully considered later. 

4. The Seaside House. This type develops under 
conditions of site peculiar to water-front properties, 
notably at the seashore; but found wherever 
similar conditions prevail along the banks of rivers 
and lakes, or, in some special cases in purely rural 
districts detached from bodies of water. Its charac- 
teristics are an outlook chiefly in one direction, with 
the point of approach either of necessity or expedien- 
cy on the opposite side of the house. The desirabil- 
ity of keeping the principal outlook unobstructed, as 
regards the more important rooms, leads to a peculiar 
type of plan in which the principal entrance and the 
service rooms are grouped together on the same side 
of the house, the plan as a whole tending to develop 
as an oblong rectangle with the longer side toward 
the sea and the front door in the back of the house, 
if one may be pardoned such an apparently absurd 
expression. 

5. The Country House. This is the most elemen- 
tary and unsophisticated of the several types 
and consequently the most wholesome. It implies 
not only full light and air on all sides, but an outlook 
equally apportioned between at least three of the sides 
(though, in restricted cases, to two) with correspond- 
ing freedom in the development of the plan. It is 
restricted chiefly by considerations of position with 
respect to the points of the compass. These favor- 
able conditions obtain as a rule, and for obvious 
reasons, in the rural districts, where land is relatively 
easy to obtain, and in larger tracts. Hence the name 
of the type. 

The next physical condition to be considered, as 
applicable in general terms to all sites, is the question 
of exposure. This resolves itself into the two factors, 
aspect and prospect, previously referred to. Aspect 
has to do with exposure to the points of compass and, 
hence, to generally fixed meteorological conditions, 
such as sunshine, the coldest winds of winter, or the 
prevailing breezes of summer. Prospect, on the other 
hand, concerns itself with the outlook from the site, 
the best views, and those least desirable. Aspect 
and prospect often, therefore, present conflicting 



claims, and such cases require most careful considera- 
tion; but from our present general standpoint they 
may be discussed separately, and aspect first. 

In so vast a country as ours, with such varying 
climates, rules devised for one locality must needs 
be considerably modified when applied to others; 
but speaking broadly, and for the Northern and 
Central Atlantic seaboard and adjoining States, it 
may be said that from the north and northwest come 
the coldest winter winds with the minimum of sun- 
shine, while in midsummer from the northwest come, 
too, the level hot rays of the late afternoon sun. The 
western aspect, on the whole, is the least desirable. 
Hot in summer, cold in winter, rooms having that 
outlook are the most uncomfortable in the house, 
and the plan should usually relegate to that quarter, 
if possible, all or most of the secondary rooms. 
From the northeast come the early rays of the sum- 
mer sun, rendering bedrooms facing in that direction 
insupportable to some people whose morning sleep 
is made impossible under such conditions. From 
this quarter, too, come most of the all-day driving 
rain storms and, on the North Atlantic coast the chill, 
fog-bearing marrow-piercing winds which breed 
New England pessimism. 

Generally speaking, however, an eastern or south- 
eastern aspect is next preferable to a northern, as the 
morning sun of the winter months, if visible at all, 
is a welcome visitor in every room exposed to its rays; 
and since the morning summer sun shines from such 
a high angle as it swings to the eastern and south- 
eastern quarter of the sky, windows looking in that 
direction are easily shaded, if desired. 

It is universally conceded nowadays that a house 
is, other things being equal, the more hygienic, the 
more it is exposed to the sunshine. It is for this 
reason, and for the further one that from that quarter 
come the prevailing breezes of the summer months, 
that the southern aspect is the one most eagerly to be 
sought and secured for the home. Even if the house 
is to be occupied the year round, the high angle of the 
summer sun during the midday hours renders it not 
unwelcome, for it is only as it declines westward that 
its lowering rays combine with the pulsating heat of 
the mid-afternoon to form an almost intolerable 
burden upon cloudless and breezeless days. It is 
at such an hour that rooms having only a western 
aspect are insuff^erable, just as they are chill and 
cheerless at the same hour in winter. Such are the 
larger elements of aspect. 

Prospect, concerning itself only with the outlook 
or view, presents wholly diff^erent problems whose 
demands are often totally opposed to the claims of 
aspect. The principal or, sometimes, the only view 
is toward the north or west, and the skill of the expert 
designer is often taxed to the uttermost to save the 
situation by producing a plan whose skilful adjust- 



Choosing a Site for the House 



9 



ment and relation of parts meets all requirements 
adequately. Then again, and this especially in the 
country, the house cannot justly be considered as an 
isolated self-centred subject, but must be treated, or 
at least dealt with on broad lines, as a detail of a 
larger picture. Whether it shall be placed upon a 
hilltop, or upon a spur of a lower range, or in the 
valley, involves general considerations which could 
be best understood by reference to specific instances. 
The materials for the exterior of the house must also 
be largely determined by the site, and the coloring of 
the neighborhood if rural, or the general treatment 
in the vicinity if urban or suburban. 

Generally speaking then, both the intimate arrange- 
ment of the plan, and the exterior design of the home 
are, to use a mathematical phrase, functions of the 
site, and are absolutely indeterminable apart from it. 

Real estate offered for residential purposes is sub- 
ject to an element of value which affects in a much 
slighter degree other unimproved properties. A 
business man, seeking a location for a new factory 
or warehouse, considers only transportation facilities 
and power, and builds where he can best get his raw 
material in and his products out at the least possible 
cost to himself. For his purposes, one site is as good 
as another if these primary elements of value are 
equal. It is only the merchant who is a retailer, and 
whose purchasers are of the more well-to-do classes 
whom sentiment affects. Here, it is of so great 
importance as to amount to a factor in the capital of 
the establishment. Of three or four large depart- 
ment stores there would seem no apparent reason why 
one should be preeminently more successful than the 
others, aside from the question of personal skill in 
management, which though important, is not suf- 
ficiently marked to account for the obvious differences 
in success. The real reason will be seen to lie in the 
fact that preeminent success is the good fortune of the 
one while denied to the others purely as a question of 
location. To the one, the best class of customers will 
come because it lies in the shopping district which 
sentiment has marked for its own, while they will not 
go to the others, though but a block to one side of 
the main thoroughfare of the retail district, because 
sentiment forbids divergence from the customary 
route of travel. 

In the better residential districts sentiment, again, 
is the absolutely controlling factor of value. Its 
influence appears in most concentrated form in the 
city. Here there is always some one quarter which 
sentiment has assigned to fashion, and the acquisi- 
tion of a building lot here is merely a question of 
price, which includes not only the high value at 
which the land is held, but usually involves the pur- 
chase and destruction of an older, to make room for 
the newer home. As this book, however, is ad- 
dressed to the larger class of home builders to whom 



the prices of such properties are prohibitive, we need 
give them no further consideration. 

While it is in the city, that this element of senti- 
ment appears in its most controlling aspect, it is far 
from absent even in rural residential districts, though 
manifesting itself under a different guise. Of two 
adjoining properties in the same desirable locality, 
one of which we will say has a small grove of trees 
upon it, while the other is bare, the former will often 
be held at, and is well worth, many hundreds of 
dollars more per acre than the latter. Yet it is a 
purely sentimental value that attaches to the trees as 
a pleasant adjunct to the home. Commercially, the 
timber is not worth the cost of cutting it down and 
carrying it away. Or it may be that one property 
commands a much coveted view which the other does 
not. The fact that the view is desirable gives it a 
market value which is added to the basic value of the 
land. In the same way land which, as farm land, 
was bought for one hundred dollars an acre can be 
sold readily for building purposes, even in remote 
rural districts, at several thousand dollars an acre. 
Yet the change in value has been brought about 
purely by a change in sentiment. This element of 
value is the one, above all others, which the specula- 
tive real estate operator spends most time and money 
to create, and is the one which, when established to 
his liking, he is most careful to preserve intact; 
knowing well that a breath of suspicion or the slight- 
est suggestion of disparagement will tend to depre- 
ciate values very quickly if his bubble has no sub- 
stantial safeguards. 

Having now considered the chief elements which 
affect all residential sites alike, we may consider 
specifically the choice of a site for each of the several 
types of home successively. All residential property 
within the limits of a city is subject to practically 
identical conditions, and it is only in minuter details 
that the diflerences between urban, semidetached, 
or suburban houses affect a choice of site. We may 
therefore consider city property in a general way 
as available for either of the above types. There are 
some locations which are fundamentally objection- 
able for any residential use. Such, for instance, are 
minimum grades, especially in intersecting streets. 
These low spots are subject to surface flooding during 
heavy rain-storms, when, the capacities of the neigh- 
boring sewers being overtaxed, water is very apt to 
back up and run in the cellar windows. This is a 
common phenomenon during heavy summer thunder 
showers. But there is a more permanently obnox- 
ious condition usually indicated by these depressions 
in street grades, and especially so when they occur 
at street intersections, namely, the presence of an 
underground stream which, having been covered up 
during the filling in of the neighborhood, now flows 
either through a sewer or by some natural under- 
ground channel. This will be certain to break bounds 



10 



Choosing a Site for the House 



during periods of prolonged rains, and dampen or 
even flood the adjoining cellars. All surface dirt and 
undesirable loose matter of all kinds, moreover, 
w^ork down to these low spots and dry as dust, 
making the neighborhood a thoroughly unsanitary 
one in all weathers. 

Although a corner lot is usually to be preferred, the 
local situation should be carefully studied before a 
choice is made. Trolley tracks on both streets are a 
distinct element of depreciation as the bumping of 
the wheels over the crossing is an annoyance by day 
and a distinctly injurious adjunct by night or during 
illness. The best place for any trolley line is in an 
adjoining street, rather than in your own. Corners, 
even in the best residential districts, are sometimes 
a source of annoyance at night if made the play- 
ground of children from less favored but neighboring 
streets and alleys. This aspect of affairs should be 
studied by personal observation before a final deci- 
sion is made. Generally, however, a corner lot is 
desirable in that our house becomes of the semide- 
tached type, with increased opportunities for light 
and air, and the New York vital statistics, quoted 
below, show that these are real and not apparent 
advantages. There is a choice of corners, if a choice 
can be exercised. The best comer is the north- 
western one, especially if the longer side of the lot 
faces south. The least desirable is the southeastern 
comer, for reasons already pointed out. 

There are too many special considerations affect- 
ing any particular lot to make it possible to anticipate 
all imaginable conditions, and we must therefore 
content ourselves with an indication of the more 
normal conditions in the property. Property on 
sloping streets, of course, requires careful study with 
reference to the avoidance of surface washings from 
careless owners of adjoining properties and also of 
adjustments of plan to grade. This latter reaches 
its most acute stage when the grade of the lot is 
materially higher than that of the sidewalk. Often 
in the latter case a depressed service entrance at side 
or rear is quite possible of attainment, as is also a 
depressed kitchen or laundry yard, both of which 
features lend themselves readily to the fullest develop- 
ment of the house garden as a real source of enjoy- 
ment. Where the lot extends through to a minor 
street in the rear, the most favorable conditions exist, 
of course, for the completest development of a city 
house that is possible on any lot of relatively limited 
extent. 

The advantages of lots on streets facing public 
parks usually far outweigh the disadvantages which 
are the apparently inevitable accompaniment of all 
public utility features. There is a choice of privilege 
however, the north side being preferable to the south 
and the west to the east. In this connection it may 
be well to point out a fallacy that is sometimes encoun- 



tered, of assuming that a room with a northern 
exposure is cooler in summer than one with a south- 
ern. Owing to the almost entire absence of norther- 
ly breezes in summer in this part of the continent and 
the prevalence, on the contrary, of southerly airs, 
together with the high angle of the sun's rays in that 
quarter of the heavens, the latter room is cool and 
pleasant in summer and, of course, far more agreeable 
in winter, owing to the absence of southerly winds, 
especially during extreme low temperatures, the low 
angle of the sun and the additional fact that the sun 
is more likely to shine in winter while in the south, 
than earlier or later in the day. 

Made ground is especially to be avoided, both on 
account of the deformations, which are certain to 
ensue in structures built upon it, as well as because of 
the usually unsanitary nature of the filling material. 
If inquiry does not suffice to elicit it, observation of 
surrounding grades and of adjacent buildings will 
usually suffice. Cracks in walls, especially about 
door and window openings, if common in the neigh- 
borhood, are a certain indication. A comparison of 
street and rear yard grades is also useful. As for 
filling material, good earth is seldom available in 
sufficient quantities and any substitute is usually 
accepted. In a recent case, a combination of half- 
burned unbound book sheets from a neighboring 
printing house fire and broken masses of asphalt 
concrete from street repairs, smoothed over with a 
top dressing of clean earth, formed a mixture upon 
which a row of smart three-story brick dwellings 
has been erected by a speculative builder. Far 
oftener the filling material is of the most unsanitary 
description, as the most casual observation would 
suffice to show. 

Vital statistics show that the north side of an east- 
west street is distinctly more healthful than the south 
side, which latter is altogether the most unfavorable 
position for an urban house, hygienically. North- 
south streets are more healthful than those at right 
angles and, if the New York statistics are to be be- 
lieved, houses in the middle of any block are less 
wholesome than those at or near the corners. This 
is what might have been expected from a prion 
considerations. 

It is perhaps a counsel of perfection to advise the 
purchase, with the site for any city house, of the two 
adjoining lots at the same time. But if one is looking 
for investment, as well as a home, much is gained by 
such an arrangement. We can, in the first place, 
so plan all three houses simultaneously that the 
desagrements of urban life may be reduced to a mini- 
mum so far as they are derived from awkward 
proximities of overlooking windows and doorways, 
but also by exercising at least the right of veto in the 
selection of our neighbors; which latter can be done 
better, of course, incognito, through an agent. 



Choosing a Site for the House 



11 



The general question of desirability for residential 
purposes of any locality, unless it be a new one, will 
generally have been already determined; but it is 
well to look into the matter a little in any event. 
New influences may be at work leading to a deteriora- 
tion in values. One should be suspicious of many 
signs displayed of a desire to rent or sell. Sometimes 
a detrimental element only operates during certain 
conditions of wind or weather, which may determine 
the deflection at such times of smoke or objectionable 
odors or sounds in the direction of the property 
under consideration. 

As one passes the confines of the city to the larger 
country beyond, it becomes not so much a search for a 
preconceived site (though this is always possible 
within somewhat wide limits), as a determination of 
the best way to utilize a given site. There are, 
certainly, obvious disadvantages in sites placed in 
damp hollows, or close to dusty highways, or on 
extremest hilltops, or cut out of a vast unshaded 
plateau; yet there is scarcely a conceivable site in the 
country short of one rendered inadmissible by unsan- 
itary conditions, that skill and experience cannot 
redeem, however unpromising or barren, or spoiled 
by unskilled treatment. In fact, in the country, 
strategy may be said to be the fundamental element 
of success in dealing with a chosen site. To one who 
thoroughly loves the country it seems impossible to 
choose an absolutely unavailable spot. 

Existing buildings can be altered and reformed, 
and nature's myriad aspects cleverly adjusted to our 
particular needs. There seem but three inadmissible 
mistakes that can be made. First, building on a 
swampy site; second, building in the midst of a grove 
of trees; third, building on a site devoid of trees — 
though this last is a relatively venial off^ense which 
can be remedied in time. If one were to imagine an 
ideal site in the country for a house and establish- 
ment, of moderate expense, it would take the form of 
a ten to twenty-acre tract with its narrower side along 
the southwesterly or southerly edge of a well-kept 
highway sloping from the highway irregularly south- 
ward to a meadow and rivulet, partly wooded, with 
an outlook in the middle and farther distances as 
fancy dictates. But such imaginings are vain, not 
because the reality is unattainable, but because of the 
protean shapes the desirable site may assume. 

In fact, there is but one way to deal in detail with 
the subject practically, and that is by an examination 
and explanation of actual examples photographed 



upon our pages, and that we will do; contenting 
ourselves meanwhile with a few concluding observa- 
tions of a more general nature. 

Hitherto the onward march of improvement from 
urban to rural districts has been relatively slow and 
long before the country place has been overwhelmed 
its fate has been foreseen. But now, the rapid devel- 
opment of trolley lines, pushing out in all directions 
from the city over private rights of way, acquired 
under the power of eminent domain, through the 
most sequestered nooks and corners of the country- 
side, add a new terror to rural life. 

No one apparently is safe, nor is any topographical 
position impregnable, and while we survey our home- 
stead, secure in possession and planning new beauties 
to be added to its charms, a real estate syndicate in 
the city is preparing a map in which it is cut up into 
rectangular lots alongside a trolley line and in the end 
resistance proves useless. Such at least has been the 
practical result in some recent cases. 

In considering a place for the house, consider also 
the garden, and do not determine the one without 
the other; and in placing the garden let it be for your 
own, rather than the general public's delight, if the 
choice is forced upon you. Let it be where the 
intimate family rooms will look out upon it, rather 
than the more public ones, if both cannot. Take 
such advantage as you may of tree clumps and let 
your house be so placed with reference to them as to 
shield the western and northern sides, rather than the 
eastern, and especially not the southern. Planting 
out, and the location of roads and paths, and other 
details belong to another field of design and cannot 
be considered here. 

Sites for houses of the marine type are also some- 
what elastic in their requirements, but not nearly so 
much so as are rural ones, owing to the paramount 
importance of preserving to its fullest extent the sea 
view and makine it available for the maximum num- 
ber of windows and verandas. As has already been 
explained, this, in the majority of instances, results 
in a longish parallelogrammic plan (with the service 
wing twisted slightly back, out of the way of the sea- 
ward view^), having both the principal and service 
entrances on the landward rather than on the sea- 
ward side. 

But it will hardly be profitable to generalize about 
unknown sites for the home at further length, and the 
following pages will afford abundant examples of 
definite sites definitely and adequately treated. 



A Simply Furnished Farmhouse 

In Montgomery County, Pa. 



THERE are hundreds 
of farmhouses like 
this one scattered far 
and wide through the East- 
ern and Middle States, 
which only need the touch 
of a skilled hand to render 
them as attractive and 
homelike on the mterior 
as they appear to be to 
the passer-by. The ac- 
companying illustrations 
show very clearly that ex- 
pense is far from being 
a necessary accompani- 
ment of cheerful and 
homelike surroundings. 
The whole secret lies in 
buying the right things, 
which ^can always be had 
at very moderate cost, 

and combining them in such a way as to impress their users 
with a sense of agreeable simplicity and with real comfort. In 
this old farmhouse which has stood as you see it here for more 
than one hundred years, most of the rooms are of the full width 




THE GROUP OF FARM BUILDINGS 



of the house with windows 
on both sides; a green 
shingle roof, green outside 
woodwork, all combining 
to make a charming pic- 
ture, but one whose key- 
note is always simplicity. 
The woodwork through- 
out is generally painted 
white with green matting 
on the floors, comfortable 
wicker chairs, and here 
and there a white skin 
rug, open fireplaces, and 
in the dining-room a 
"delft" wall-paper, costing 
only fifteen cents a roll, 
real glass knobs bought 
second hand for doors and 
furniture, old chairs re- 
covered with new chintz 

and painted white, chintz cushions, are the chief materials which 

go to make up a charming picture. 

And best of all this has been produced for the most part by a 

few willing hands in the household. 




NOTE THE CHARMING SIMPLICITY OF THE STAIR HALL 



12 



A Simply Furnished Farmhouse 



13 




THE HOUSE AS SEEN FROM THE ROAD 




A " DELFT " DINING-ROOM IN WHITE AND BLUE 



14 



A Simply Furnished Farmhouse 






>^ 




THE BEDROOM OVER THE LIVING-ROOM 




THE LIVING-ROOM, FURNISHED IN THE SIMPLEST MANNER 



Swarthmore Lodge, Bryn Mawr, Pa. 

Charles "Barton Keen and Frank Mead, Architects 



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THE HOUSE AND GARDEN AS SEEN FROM THE FRONTJ 

S has been so well pointed out by Mr. Frank Miles Dayjn the second 
chapter of the text of this book, environment and traditions of the place 
ought to receive most serious consideration in choosing the style of a house. 
Swarthmore Lodge, illustrated on this and the succeeding pages, affords an in- 
teresting study of the influence of both of these forces. Bryn Mawr lies in a 
rolling country, watered by many creeks that flow through heavily wooded 
valleys into the Schuylkill and Delaware. On a hilltop from which one sees 
pleasant stretches of meadow-land and woods, lies Swarthmore Lodge. The 
country around about was settled by Welsh Quakers, who followed closely in 
the footsteps of William Penn. Simplicity and frugality and a Welsh manner 
of building were their typical traits. This house is a study in grays. The gray 
mica-schist of the locality is used for the stone work and gray shingles cover 
the woodwork. The massive eaves in deep shadow and the white paint 
combine to form a charming picture of Quaker dignified simplicity. 

The same gray mica-schist that the settlers used is still quarried in the 
neighborhood, and their old houses show how quiet and pleasant a wall it 
makes when simply laid and when half covered with the broad wide point- 
ing ot the joints. Shingles, too, are just as reasonable a roof covering and 
just as readily to be had as in the old days. Note especially the value of 
the long level line of the eaves continued out by the lines of the pergola. 

If no Quaker farmhouse ever had a garden that looked like this one still 
environment has played its part, for the conditions of the site have dominated 
its arrangement. Stepped terraces conform to the grade of the hillside, and 
it the garden accessories show a decided Italian cult, it is not, after all, so 
incongruous. The lines, after all, are simple, and horizontality is the perva^ 
ding element of the composition, and if the colors in the garden are somewhat 
gay that is Nature's fault and not the Quakers'. Beauty, after all, has a way 
of disregarding reason, and few can deny beauty to the house and garden of 
Swarthmore Lodge. 

(Note: In the adjoining plan the name of this place is incorrectly given as 
Stratford Lodge.) 

15 



16 



Swarthmore Lodge 




THE HOUSE FROM BELOW 




LOOKING DOWN ON THE LOWER GARDEN 



Swarthmore Lodge 



17 



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PLAN OF THE GROUND FLOOR 




PLAN OF THE SECOND FLOOR 



18 



Swarthmore Lodge 




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Pi 

W 
Pi 
Pi 
t3 

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O 

P« 

o 

Q 
O 

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Swarthmore Lodge 



19 




INSIDE THE PERGOLA 




LOOKING UP FROM THE LOWER GARDEN 




20 



II 

Choosing a Style for the House 



Frank Miles Day 

PresiJent of the Ajyierican Institute of Architects 



"VTOT long ago, the editor of this book was asked 
-^ ^ by one who was about to build a house, what 
style it would be best to choose. The editor very 
properly answered the better course would be to 
retain an architect of known ability and let the archi- 
tect select the style. To this the would-be house 
owner answered, that he had already done so, but that 
the architect seemed as incapable of reaching a de- 
cision as he himself had been. He added, that there 
must be some fundamental principles which should 
control the choice of style for any given building, 
things subject to reason rather than fashion, and he 
suggested that the editor might well start a discussion 
of such questions. It is as a part of this discussion 
that the following thoughts are put forth. 

The first thing that occurs to me — and this without 
in any way attempting to beg the question — is that a 
deliberate choice of style is by no means essential, 
and is, indeed, often a grave hindrance to a right, 
reasonable, and beautiful solution of the problem of 
building. And by st}le, I here mean just what the 
editor's questioner meant, that is to sav, a well de- 
fined mode of building prevalent in some certain 
place and at some certain time. 

Normally, style of this sort originates from the 
needs of a people, from the materials at hand and 
from a desire to build with beautv; but in the course 
of its evolution, it is always modified and held in 
control by the builder's knowledge of what has gone 
before or what is going on at his own time. Until 
the revival of learning, the age of the conscious, pas- 
sionate striving to resurrect the glory of the classic 
ages, there were but few, if an\', deliberate attempts 
to hark back to an earlier manner of building. The 
ancients had done that sort of thing in sculpture when 
they had imitated the earlv work of their forbears 
in a way which, strive as it might, could not seize the 
real archaic spirit, the way we now call archaistic. 
But in architecture it is hard to put one's finger on 
that sort of thing earlier than the time of the Renais- 
sance. Then, gradually, the old order gave way to 



the new. To be sure, even after the change, the 
needs of the people had to be met, and their needs 
were very different from those of the ancient Romans, 
but such as they were, they were met in the way in 
which the men of the Renaissance thought the men 
of the Augustan era would have met them. 

And thus for the first time arose the question of 
a deliberate choice of style, a resuscitation of a way 
of building in use in other ages and under other con- 
ditions. And this is what we have been trying to 
do ever since, only we out-Herod Herod. The men 
of the Renaissance were in unison as to the style they 
wanted to imitate. We do not know our own minds; 
we do not know what age, what country to set up as 
our standard and the voices that would guide us are 
but crying in this wilderness of indecision. But 
there is one thing well known, completely agreed 
upon by all who have given serious thought to it: — 
that it is not by the copying of the outward forms of 
any architectural style that we can hope to make our 
work vital and worthy. If from a plan suited to the 
needs of a given building, if from a reasonable and 
appropriate choice and handling of materials, there 
should grow beauty, it is all that we can ask and all 
that we need to ask. Simple as it sounds, the doing 
of the thing is difficult beyond conception. Few 
can do it well or even passably. Granted that this 
is the right wa}', the only way by which we can hope 
to make buildings truthful and beautiful and eloquent 
of their time and place, it is easy to see how a choice 
of style from a prion considerations is a most grave 
hindrance to the following of it. 

And having said all this, I am prepared to grant 
paradoxical as it may seem, that style in architecture 
is the one quality that above all others secures for a 
building the esteem of generations of men. But style 
in this sense is not an affair of archaeology but an 
abstract quality, a subtle excellence very hard to define. 
Perhaps it may be made clear by comparison with 
that same quality of style as we think of it in the 
sister art of literature. If a writer reaches real dis- 



21 



22 



Choosing a Style for the House 




A SEASIDE COTTAGE FOR $3,000 

^ Albert Kelsey, Architect 




MRS. COMEGYS' HOUSE, CHESTNUT HILL, PHILADELPHIA 

CopB & Stewaedson, Architects 










A COUNTRY RESIDENCE 

Cram, Wentwoeth & Goodhue, Arcliitects 



Choosing a Style for the House 



23 



tinction, it may well be assumed that his work has 
the quality we call style, and we do not demand that 
this style be that of a definite school. We do not ask 
him to write like an Elizabethan dramatist, or a 
Georgian essayist, or a pre-Raphaelite poet. If he 
have something worth saying, and if he surround the 
saying of it with that indefinable thing called literary 
style, it is enough. Now this precisely is the sort of 
style that we should demand of the architect. That 
he know the grammar of his art, that he plan simply 
and directly, that he build strongly is not enough. 
Has his work expression f Has it the high quality 
of style ? Has it, in other words, an excellence of 
design that raises it to the plane of serious consider- 
ation ? This, after all, is the thing that is to dis- 
tinguish his work from that of his fellows. 

And how have such of our architects as have 
striven for it, succeeded in making houses interesting 
and beautiful without resorting to the easy trick of 
using a definite historic style. One way of doing it is 
certainly by means of those simple, local materials, 
whose use is so finely and justly praised by Mr. W. L. 
Price, in the third chapter of this book. He has a 
message for us, the essential truth of which we can- 
not too quickly take to heart or put in practice. 
Nor are we lacking in examples of the way to do such 
work. Mr. Price has, himself built such a house at 
Wallingford, in which the local stone, bearing ruddy 
stains of the iron that is in it, plays the chief role. 
In the house built years ago at Chestnut Hill, by those 
two splendid men and admirable artists, John Stew- 
ardson and Walter Cope, in whose untimely death 
American architecture suffered so heavy a loss, we 
see again a local stone, this time the cool grey mica- 
schist, handled in traditional ways, but with a fresh- 
ness and a personal note that will make this house last 
as one of the most interesting in Pennsylvania. Even 
in Elmer Grey's house at Fox Point, Wis., although 
the use of local material is less evident, the simplicity 
and directness of the design make it worthy of con- 
sideration with the others. Similar qualities of free- 
dom, charm, personal expression we see in Wilson 
Eyre's house in Germantown; but examples might 
be given by the score. 

These things are the true answers to our amateur's 
question. This is the style, conditioned on local 
material, vocal of our own time and place; reason- 
able, appropriate but nameless, that should come 
naturally to us and not as the result of a deliberate 
choice. 

Unfortunately, we use the same word to indicate 
the high degree of excellence in architectural design 
of which I have been speaking, and also to indicate 
a manner of building in vogue in a certain country 
at a certain time. But let us avoid confusion by 
recognizing the fact that while style in its higher 
sense may be present in a work which it is quite 



impossible to tag with an archaological label,^it may 
equally be present in a work of the most definite 
archaeological sort. Such, to take an example in a 
French manner, is the Townsend House at Washing- 
ton, D. C, by Carrere & Hastings, or, to take'one 
in an English style is the country house by Cram, 
Wentworth & Goodhue. On the other handtwe 
must bear in mind that a work filled with archaeolog- 
ical accuracy may be quite devoid of style in the 
truer, higher sense. 

But this high quality of style is after all not the sort 
in which our editor's questioner is interested. He is 
concerned with something far less subtle. Is his 
home to recall a Tudor manor, a Tuscan villa, a 
chateau by the Loire, or a Virginia homestead ? The 
world is all before him where to choose. Unfortu- 
nately he demands guidance as to his choice and insists 
that this guidance shall be based on fundamental 
principles and not on mere fashion or personal incli- 
nation. Now while I am convinced that this ques- 
tion is not a profitable one, and that it gives rise to 
negative results, I am willing to make some inquiry 
for possible answers. Let us ask then what things we 
might suppose would influence the style of a house. 
Here certainly are some of them : 

a. The kind of country- in which the house is to 

be built; flat or rolling, mountainous, wooded, 
or open. 

b. Neighboring buildings, especially if of a definite 

type. 

c. Local materials and traditional ways of build- 

ing- 

d. The owner's individuality and mode of life. 

e. The architect's personality, training and pre- 

dilections. 

THE SITE OF THE HOUSE 

The site unquestionably should have a very great 
influence upon the plan of the house, as Professor 
Osborne has most lucidly explained in the first chap- 
ter of this book, but it seems to have far less influ- 
ence on the choice of style than one would imagine. 
Let us for a moment conceive the site as a broad 
plain near a river. Some old Georgian Manor, 
Groombridge Place, let us say, seems perfectly suited 
to such a site. On the other hand, can we name 
any style that our amateur might have in mind that 
does not furnish admirable solutions of this very 
problem ? Even so animated a style as that of the 
early Renaissance in France gives us Josselyn, by 
its rolling river, or Chenonceaux, spanning the quiet 
waters of the Cher. Perhaps we might generalize 
by saying that long level lines harmonize best with 
such quiet stretches of landscape and that, therefore, 
we should choose some style in which they predomi- 
nate were it not that we are dumfounded by the 
thought of Azay, with its strong verticals and its 



24 



Choosing a Style for the House 




SWAYLANDS, PENSHURST, KENT 




GROOMBRIDGE PLACE, KENT. THE WEST BRIDGE 



Choosing a Style for the House 



25 



agitated roof lines, looking supremely beautiful in 
broad meadows with the folds of the Indre wrapped 
about its base. 

If our house is to be set upon some steep hillside, 
some cliffy place, surely we may find guidance in 
such a spot. Obviously, your quiet Georgian thing 
is out of keeping here. Strong upright lines, well 
marked parts, a vivacious sky line suggest themselves. 
St. Pagan's near Llandaff, is quite as it should be. 
Quite naturally one's mind runs off to Scotland with 
its inimitable hillside gardens such as Barncluith 
only to remember that the greatest charm of those 
places is the long level Hues of their terraces rising 
one above another, and that Earlshall, a house that 
corresponds well with our imagined character, is 
really set down in a perfectly level place. 

Thus, in the first effort to find an answer, we reach 
a result quite useless to our amateur. Let him get 
but a clever enough worker in archaeological leger- 
demain and his house shall look well (so it might 
seem) in any style he is pleased to name, and on any 
site that he is pleased to buy. Yet we know very 
well that it will not, for we have seen the experiment 
tried too often. 

NEIGHBORING BUILDINGS 

That, in the choice of style, we owe a duty to our 
neighbors is a fact too often ignored. If buildings 
exist which, when our own is finished, will group with 
it, we must not ignore them, for in such an instance 
our building is but a part of the whole composition 
and, unless we are utterly selfish, we must seek the 
best result for the whole rather than for a part. In 
Europe this thought obtains more acceptance than 
among us, for in many cities, municipal regulations 
are so framed and enforced as to secure a certain 
uniformity of design, monotonous perhaps, but 
decent, orderly and quiet. Here, and especially in 
our suburban communities, so little harmony is seen 
that it is clearly a case of each one for himself and the 
devil take the hindermost. 

LOCAL TRADITIONS AND MATERIALS 

Had we definite local traditions in the art of build- 
ing, we might make some steady advance, building 
in the way of our fathers but better and more beau- 
tifully. In the States of the Atlantic seaboard, there 
were once such traditions, but we have broken with 
them and the return to them must be made with con- 
scious effort, an effort that results in our Colonial 
revival. But, for the most part, throughout our land 
there is no local way of building that rises above the 
commonplace. This is partly due to the fact that 
we are no longer compelled to use the materials that 
the neighborhood of the building offers. Time was, 
and that not a hundred years ago, when lacking 



water transportation, such materials had to be used. 
And so strongly marked is the influence of that use of 
local materials that to take an example from Great 
Britain, one familiar with its cottages might, if 
dropped down at random anywhere in the Island, 
make from them alone a shrewd guess as to his 
whereabouts. Thus, if he saw such a cottage as 
that at Stanton, he would know that he was on that 
band of limestone that extends from Somerset to the 
dales of Yorkshire, and he might well pick out this 
particular cottage as a good specimen of the type that 
prevails in the Cotswold District. If the house were 
of a soft, warm sandstone, he might know that he had 
fallen in Cheshire or Shropshire, or Hereford. Even 
there, he might see half-timbered cottages of great 
beauty but by the way in which the timber is used, he 
would be very sure that he was not in Kent or Sussex, 
where half-timber work equally abounds. And now 
let us take as an example of the influence of material 
upon construction, and therefore upon style, such a 
Kentish cottage as that near Penshurst, and let us 
summarize the description of the construction of such 
a building given in Dawber's book on "The Cottages 
of Kent and Sussex." 

Upon a brick or stone base a heavy sill 
piece was laid, and upon this upright storey posts, 
eight or nine inches square, were fixed. These at 
the angles were larger and formed of the butt of a 
tree placed root upwards, with the top part curving 
diagonally outwards to carry the angle post of the 
upper storey. On these uprights rested another 
larger timber, a sort of sill piece for the second storey. 
On this in turn rested the beams of the second floor, 
their ends projecting some eighteen inches and carry- 
ing the overhanging second storey wall, which was 
constructed like that of the first. The divisions 
between the uprights were filled with wattles or 
laths and chopped straw and clay or sometimes 
even with bricks, and the surface plastered flush 
with the face of the timbers. 

Such a method of construction, direct and truthful 
and beautiful as it is, has defects in the shrinkage 
of its timbers and consequent openness to the ele- 
ments, so grave that houses thus built have, in 
many cases, been protected at a later date by tile 
hanging or sometimes by exterior plastering or by 
weather-boarding. So that it often happens if we 
hunt beneath such protection, we find the original 
half-timber cottage intact. Such a method of con- 
struction is obviously impossible for us to-day. 
For were we willing to pay the cost incident to shaping 
the timbers bv hand, we would not tolerate a leaky 
wall. Yet, more's the pity, we are forever making 
the attempt to have the semblance without the reality. 
We build an honest brick wall, nail strips of w^ood 
against it and plaster the space between them. What 
a preposterous imitation of a once reasonable con- 
struction. 



26 



Choosing a Style for the House 




HOUSE AT FOX POINT, WISCONSIN 

Elmee Ghby, Architect 




CHENONCEAUX 



Choosing a Style for the House 



27 



Thus, I say, where a traditional style of building 
existed, it was modified, its evolution was assisted 
by the limitations imposed by the use of local mate- 
rials. But how is it with us who lack a local tradi- 
tion and who are no longer bound to the use of mate- 
rials at hand ? Modern facilities of transportation 
have actually made it, in many cases, difficult and 
expensive to employ the material at hand, so that 
the place where the building is to be erected has 
but little influence on the choice of materials and 
consequent development of style. To-day it is 
cheaper to build a house in Maine of wood from 
Oregon than of granite quarried within a mile, 
or to finish the rooms with cypress from the Gulf of 
Mexico than with white pine from the Pine Tree 
State. Such are the anomalies of the exhaustion of 
natural resources, of the use of machinery, of high- 
priced labor and of cheap transportation. 

PREDILECTIONS OF THE ARCHITECT 

The owner's personality and his mode of life 
should, of course, exercise an influence on the style of 
his house. If he be a man of quiet tastes, fond of 
home life, not given to lavish entertainments, those 
qualities should be expressed by a restrained, a 
modest domestic feeling in the treatment of the house, 
that it is almost impossible to express in certain 
well-marked historic styles. The minor English 
buildings, the farm houses of Normandy, even our 
own Colonial houses off"er starting points for such 
a case. But granted that the man be a millionaire, 
with an established position in society, or even with 
aspirations for it, his house must be a far different 
affair, suitably planned for entertaining many people, 
and expressed in some formal, well digested style 
such as that of Louis XVI. Indeed the selection of 
a style suitable for a million dollar "cottage" at New- 
port is far less difficult than the finding of the right 
expression for a suburban house of moderate size. 
The owner's training, his inclinations, too, must not 
be forgotten. A man with a well marked bias in 
favor of all French things, would naturally choose 
one of the French styles for his house. One so full 
of enthusiasm for all things Italian as Mrs. Edith 
Wharton, might well be pardoned for giving her 
house a distinctly Italian form. 

But these are exceptions. Not one in a thousand 
of us has any intellectual bias so strongly marked as 
to justify its expression in the style of his house. It 
is obvious that the architect's training and predi- 
lections for certain styles will, in the main, exercise 



a far greater influence on the house than will those of 
the owner. The men who achieve most by work- 
ing in definite styles are those who entertain the most 
positive convictions that the style of their choice is 
without question the only right, the only logical style 
for our times. It is Mr. Ralph Adams Cram's firm 
conviction that the abandonment of the Gothic style 
brought about the ruin of all that was noblest in the 
art of architecture. It is his almost religious zeal 
for a revivification of that style that gives to 
his designs their absorbing interest. It is because 
Thomas Hastings believes we will achieve no worthy 
end unless we succeed in making our work an evolu- 
tion from the French styles of the eighteenth century 
and it is because of his knowledge of and devotion 
to those styles that his work reaches so high a plane of 
urbanity and courtliness. It is because Mr. Charles 
McKim has an ineradicable conviction that it is 
from Italy, whether of the classical times or of the 
Renaissance, that we should draw our inspiration that 
he can clothe the needs of our own time in a garb that 
for dignity of manner and for perfection of proportion 
and of detail, sometimes equals the best of the exam- 
ples for which he shows such complete devotion. 

In the face of obsessions such as these, how futile 
it is for the owner to talk of choosing his own style. 
It is only when he selects an architect devoid of 
definite convictions that he will be confronted with 
the troubles which the question put to the editor 
presupposes. Yet in this connection another thing 
needs saying, and that is that the power these men 
have of producing work of great distinction comes 
not alone from their definite convictions on the 
subject of style, but also, and this is far more impor- 
tant, from the fact that each is an artist of such rare 
ability that even if he were set to work in an alien 
style he would design buildings of far greater interest 
than the work of most other men. 

And now let me sum up my argument by a state- 
ment of my own opinion upon the choice of style. 
The only thought that comes to me is one that stands 
for an ideal difficult of realization for men of this gen- 
eration. It is precisely the one I put forth a while 
ago, by saying that if the plan be a simple and direct 
expression of the needs and life of the people who are 
to live in the house, and if the elevations are a logical 
outgrowth from and a reasonable expression of that 
plan, and if the whole be made beautiful and vocal 
of its time and place, then the building will have 
style in the best sense and will need none of that 
exotic or archaeological style that is the bane of so 
much of our work to-day. 



28 



Choosing a Style for the House 




CHATEAU JOSSELYN. VIEW FROM THE RIVER ROAD 




FARMHOUSE AT STANTON, GLOUCESTERSHIRE 



Choosing a Style for the House 



29 




COTTAGE ON LEHMANN STREET, GERMANTOWN, PHILADELPHIA 



^'ir.sox EvKio, Areliitect 




ST. FAGAN S CASTLE, CARDIFF, FROM THE HIGHER POND 



A House on a Twenty-five foot Lot 



l^awrence Visscher Boyd, Architect 




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THE house shown on this page is typical of the best class of Philadelphia work, 
and illustrates also a type of house of which Mr. Boyd has designed many ex- 
amples with similar success. The price noted here, forty-five hundred dollars, was 
the actual cost of the house after the owner had paid all the bills. The difficulties pre- 
sented in the designing a house of this character arise from the con- 
stricted width of the lot, forcing the house to assume a long, narrow rectangle, with its 
porch front on one end. This brings many windows to the side of the house 
where they are overlooked by neighbors on either side. In this particular case 
there are very few windows, and all these of minor importance, on the side nearest 
the adjoining house. As this side also faces the north, a double object is accom- 
plished. Scrutiny from the adjoining house is checked, and the north winds find little 
opportunity in winter for intrusion. Towards the south, there is an abundance of 
light, and as the adjoining lot is still unimproved, the owner, by a judicious use of 
options, may hold this in its present condition, until he is ready to purchase. The 
first story of such a house might be very well built of brick or stone. The second story 
and all roofs can be covered with shingles. An agreeable color tone in grays and 
whites would complete the picture. The roofs might very well be covered with green 
shingles, and a setting of green lawn and gaily flowering plants and shrubs would 
produce a very agreeable, domestic picture for the money expended. 




First Floor Plan 



Second Floor Plan 





I 



HOUSE ON A LOT TWENTY-FIVE FEET WIDE— COST 14,500 
LAWBinrcs Visschbb Botd, Architect 



30 



"Sonnenschein," Westchester, N. Y. 



IVilliam H. Beers, Architect 




VIEW OF THE LIBRARY 



OVERLOOKING the waters of Long Island Sound stands this 
charmingly simple country home, which by its cheerful 
aspect expresses the German name which its owner has given it. 
By an angle in the plan, the vine-clad porch is given a generous view 
to the west and south. Projecting unroofed beyond the library, the 
view is further extended from this outdoor space which is so 
important a feature of our country houses; enabling us to unite 
in one during the warm days and nights of summer the func- 
tions of several rooms. Opening off the reception room is a 
paneled vestibule, with shelves for palms and flowers, leading 



to the library, which is a delightful li\ing-room finished in tones 
of dull reds and grays with a generous fireplace at one end, 
with simple bays on either side. Liberal dormers, breaking the 
expanse of the roof, light five large bedrooms, whose well 
shuttered windows give ample winter protection toward the north. 
Three servants' bedrooms in the attic are lighted by a large 
dormer to ward the east and rear. Sloping, the ground toward the 
back gives an ample basement. The grounds are dotted with 
shrubbery and flowers merging the grounds into the surrounding 
countryside. 





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First Floor Plan 



Second Floor Plan 



31 



32 



"Sonnenschein'* 




Ill 

Choosing Simple Materials 
for the House 



JVilliam L,. Price 



Of Prici £? McLanahan, Architects 



npHE advantages of the use of common and rough 
■*- local materials seem to me to be threefold. 
First, they are cheap; second, they are easily 
obtainable; and third, they are beautiful. Burroughs 
says somewhere that a house should be built of 
materials picked up at hand, and in large degree he 
seems to me to be right. Not only for sentimental 
and practical reasons but because it tends to produce 
types — tends towards a pleasing homogeneity in 
local style that is altogether good. 

If you walk through the counties of England, vou 
will find just such varied yet typical local color. Tile- 
roofed timbered houses here, thatched whitewashed 
houses there, stone and slate or brick houses in 
another section; and these cottages, simple in them- 
selves and devoid of ornament in most part, make 
together that world-charming Rural England that is 
without peer. 

We have boxed the compass architecturally, raking 
over the world's scrap heap of styles and the supply 
man's scrap heap ot materials and, as a consequence, 
urban and rural districts alike are for the most part 
marred not only by a total lack of local significance in 
architecture, but by a lack of an\' homogeneity of 
style, material, or color, and the result is an unrestful 
hodgepodge, blatantly declaring its crudities, instead 
of adding an air of brooding homeliness to Nature's 
beauties. Our homes should nestle among the trees 
and fields, not ramp upon the highwa\s. 

Now almost all localities ofi^er in their stone, wood 
or brick clays, sand and pebbles, some dominant note 
of color or texture that, used intelligently, would give 
us just the fitness that the bird nest has — just the 
local color that would always harmonize. But some 
one has seen and admired a boulder house in its fit 
home among the boulders, and must import boulders 
to sandy flat or rolling sward. 

So it is with architecture. Vou cannot pluck up 
your English or Italian or Colonial by the roots and 
plant it here, there and everywhere and get results 
that are worth while. Architecture to be fit, must fit 



need and purpose and environment — fit the living 
purpose, not the dead precedent. 
Emerson says: 

"I thought the sparrow's note from heaven, 
Singing at dawn on the alder bough; 
I brought him home, in his nest, at even; 
He sings the song, but it pleases not now, 
For I did not bring home the river and sky; — 
He sang to my ear, — they sang to my eye. 
The delicate shells lay on the shore; 
The bubbles of the latest wave 
Fresh pearls to their enamel gave; 
And the bellowing of the savage sea 
Greeted their safe escape to me. 
I wiped away the weeds and foam, 
I fetched my sea-born treasures home; 
But the poor unsightly, noisome things 
Had left their beauty on the shore, 
With the sun and the sand and the wild uproar." 

Cheap ornament has been the bane of American 
architecture, whether it has been the jig-sawed 
atrocities of a day long happily past, or the painfully 
correct historic ornament moulded or pressed or 
even carved, from which we now suffer. There must 
be some reason for the use of ornament. There cer- 
tainly was once. But even the best of classic orna- 
ment seems to me to sink into nonsignificance com- 
pared with its simple prototype. How infinitely 
more beautiful the hanging swags of fruit or of 
wreaths, leaves and flowers, showing forth the joy- 
ousness of man's harvest time, than the frozen fruit 
of his skill in ornate frieze and marble cap. Cer- 
tainly when the artist, unable to control himself in 
the joy of his art, carved or painted on the walls of 
use, he glorified building. But how much of our 
so-called decoration springs from the fountain of 
unrestrainable art ? Do we not after all use decora- 
tion for color and texture, rather than for the expres- 
sion of ideals ^. Ornament should for its excuse 
plead interest as well as beauty, but what interest 
can there be in endless repetition even of a most 
interesting model, or meaningless and inappropriate 



33 



34 



Choosing Simple Materials for the House 



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Choosing Simple Materials for the House 



35 




A SIMPLE FIREPLACE 




CHESTNUT POST GUILTLESS OF OIL OR VARNISH 



SIMPLICITY FOR THOSE WHO UNDERSTAND 



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36 



Choosing Simple Materials for the House 




Choosing Simple Materials for the House 



37 



historic ornament ? We carve and mould and paint 
to get texture and color, when the very rough material 
that we hide away in cellar walls and backing, would 
give us better texture and better color than we can 
obtain in veneered surface or ornamented frieze. 
We are beginning to learn this in regard to brick, 
demanding that the brick shall show the touch of 
fire, and shall have some of the lovely texture of 
rough clay. But then we destroy largely its value by 
over ornamented wood or over cut stone. 

If we would consider the structural significance 
of all our material (and there is no architecture with- 
out this), if we would treat wood as wood, stone as 
stone, and brick and plaster for what they are, and 
carry the work in them just to the point where utility 
ends, we might realize an architectural significance 
impossible in our abortive attempts to import style 
and taste. Then if there were money left to pay for 
it and artists to do it, we might add that touch of 
elegance produced in symmetrical and forceful build- 
ing, by ornament. It is not that this end is never 
achievedjfor it is, sporadically and often accidentally, 
through the necessity of economy. What I am 
asking you to consider is the desirability of the use ot 
simple material through choice, not accident. 

Very little of our more important work is at all 
sketchable, and I think that much of the good old 
work was not particularly picturesque or beautiful 
until Time had chipped away its over nicety and 
mellowed its ornament into color and texture. But 
why should we have to wait for this mellowing of age 
when Nature has been at work for untold ases round- 
ing and staining materials ready to our hand ^ 
When she would turn our oak and chestnut to the 
most inimitable violet greys if we would hold off our 
varnish and our paint ? The charming color ot 
stone and softly blended pointing on an old barn wall 
is infinitely more attractive than the smug newness 
of our carefully picked quarry stone with all color and 
interest specified out of it, with which latter we can 
only live in the hope that the native iron in it will 
some time rescue it from its barrenness. But why 
wait, when field and hedgerow and quarr)' top are 
brimming over with flint and boulder, or the mellow- 
est of iron-stained stone .? 

Get a stone-mason also indigenous to the soil, 
and with some interest in his work, and you can 
piece out your old barn walls or build new walls, that 
will drop into place alike with the old work and the 
landscape. There is a better day dawning. We are 
going back to gardening, which goes to show that 
Nature is being considered in its relation to archi- 
tecture, and while our eff^ort at present seems mainly 
to lie in the direction of torturing Nature into a shape 
to match our houses, still we will grow, and eventually 
architecture will be tamed to meet Nature at least 



half way. We are building cut stone English gar- 
dens which stand for generations of landlordism and 
servitude. We are building marble Italian gardens 
which stand for the exclusions of the palace. And 
later on we will build American gardens which will 
stand for democracy and homeliness. We already 
show signs of reaching forward to the sweet sim- 
plicity of our grandmothers' flower gardens that we 
thought we had left behind us when we side-stepped 
culture and the joy of living in our eager search for 
the means for life, which we mistook for the proper 
end of life. But already some of us think that we 
know that a whitewashed picket fence is a better 
garden ornament than a marble wall, and a pebbled 
pool than sculptured basin; that Nature nestles up to 
rough-hewn post or wall or well-curb more lovingly 
than to any clean-cut marble pergola; that sculptured 
faun or satyr has no place in a cottage garden, unless 
indeed it be one of those rare expressions of a master 
soul that could make even a desert its fitting niche. 
Real sculpture is no more an intrusion in garden or 
house, than man's true music is an interruption of 
Nature's melodies. It is the fulfillment, the crown- 
ing touch of Nature's plan; but to be so, it must be 
the joyous expression of a sentiment, not mere sound 
or form. So, when you go a-gardening, do not plan 
tor the unknown singer or sculptor. If he comes, 
the niche will be there, never fear. 

Build your house and your garden (for your house 
is not a home without a garden, or your garden a 
garden without a house), to fit the needs of yourself 
and your triends — to express their life, to shelter 
their intimacies, and to proclaim their joyousness. 
Build it simply, tor we are at heart a simple people, 
joying in the doing rather than in the having of 
things. Build it of the materials next at hand, and 
you will wake up some day to find that we have an 
American architecture, as typical and expressive as 
the world has known. 

When the artist goes out to sketch, it is worth while 
for the home builder to follow. If he does select 
his subject trom the old or dilapidated, it is because 
they give him the color and form he wants. A ruin, 
except to the morbid, is not more interesting than a 
new building because it is in ruins. Nature has 
mereh^ undone man's over work, and if we took our 
cue from the artist and through him from the general 
taste, we could build as paintable buildings as ever 
existed, and with all that subtle human character 
that lingers around the old. Of course Nature must 
have a tew seasons in which to creep up to the door 
side and wipe out the scars of man's hasty building, 
and after that each year should add something to the 
intimac\'. But simply and beautifully designed and 
built, the house would never otFend, and would in 
itself be the prophecy of beauties to come. But you 
must abandon much that is routine and easy of 



38 



Choosing Simple Materials for the House 




READY FOR THE GARDENER AND NATURE TO DO THEIR WORK 




A KITCHENf PORCH 



A ROUNDED PLASTER WINDOW JAMB 



Choosing Simple Materials for the House 



39 



accomplishment in designing. Your problem is no 
office problem of machine-cut limestone and mill- 
made woodwork, fashioned after the bookmen's 
rules. You must design in the open, with a mind 
wide to seize upon any tiny suggestion of Nature or 
of your client's will or whim. You must diagnose 
the case, not as a doctrinaire with a well laid out 
scheme of design, and a series of fixed styles in mind, 
into one of which your client and his site are to be 
moulded, but as an artist, taking note of harmonies 
of line and color, of Nature's proffered materials and 
suggestions in rock or sand or clay. She will surely 
have some dominant note to which you must bow, 
and with which other materials must be made to 
blend. It may be the color of the stone at hand. It 
may be its roughness, or smoothness, or its cleavage, 
that shall set the pace. It may be even the color of 
the local creek sand that, running through dashed 
wall or pointed stone, gives that bond that is neces- 
sary to tie your house and garden to the busy earth. 
No artificial pigment can supply the lack of this kind 
of color. No hewn stone can give the native touch 
of texture. No ornament can take the place of either. 
The delicate grey of chestnut fence-post and rail, or 
silvery sheen on shingle or unpainted siding, cannot 
be matched by any stain. If you have not time 
to wait, build in a suburb. You have no place in 
Nature's heart. Not that you may not bring Nature 
into the suburb, or even the city; but if you will you 
must stand your neighbor's finger of scorn, though 
afterwards possibly his envy. He will look on your 
simple backing stone walls, your rough plaster, and 
your weather-stained wood, as evidences of poverty 
and meanness. And beware of the wise and prudent 
in yourself that sees in the practical, only dollars and 
cents and physical comfort, leaving out of count the 
equally practical esthetic and spiritual side of life — 
that inner consciousness of our better self to which 
the larger things are evident. Rank sentiment .? 
Yes, but so is all beauty that is not born of pride and 
ostentation. Be practical to the uttermost. Make 
your plan fit the smallest as well as the greatest 
physical need. Sacrifice symmetry, style, precedent, 
anything, to it, but don't forget that the soul must be 
fed as well as the body. Don't forget that the home 
is to be the cradle of the ideal of the next generation, 
and the new truth that is to make the practical possi- 
ble. Don't forget that modern steam power was the 
child of the tea-kettle, born at the fireside, and that 
art is the mother of all unborn mysteries, for it is 
through her we grow. 

Take time to think about your house and garden, 
so that it may be your home, not your lodging, as fit 
for another as for you. But don't think when vou 
have taken time and thought as to the plan, that the 
work is done. You will have to give the mason, the 
joiner, and the plasterer a chance, and by giving him 
a chance I don't mean signing a contract with him. 



If he cannot add some touch of individuality to his 
work, you have planned m vain. You must coax his 
interests into your walls. You must make him a 
mason, not merely a fulfiUer of specifications. You 
cannot specify the unknown individuality that must 
be built stone by stone into your wall. You say that 
you cannot find such skilful and artistic masons ? 
Have you tried ? He is hid away in the bosom of 
most men. The art instinct is primeval. It drives 
the humblest of savages to express himself in the 
work of his hands. But we have made him very shy, 
and with our exact specifications, our deadly detail 
and superior knowledge, we have well-nigh crushed 
him out. But give me the many-jobbed mason of 
the countryside, the backing stone you hide in cellar 
walls, a little time, and I'll show you walls that sun- 
beams and creepers will cling to to your heart's 
content; garden seats and pergolas that will be no 
intrusion; not a house, but a home, that will woo you 
away from smug structures of cut stone and painted 
wood, back to good fellow Nature's side, who stands 
tapping at your garden gate, who when you will not 
have her for year-round fellow, still draws you away 
to mountain shack or pebbly beach in summer 
breathing time; and this feast of simphcity to which 
I ask you is no unattainable mecca of the rich. It 
does not lie in palace land, but is here, holding out its 
hands to rich and poor alike, in every countryside, 
when we shall have sense enough to hear its call. 
Accept Morris's comprehensive summing up: "Have 
nothing in your house that you do not know to be use- 
ful, and believe to be beautiful." And remember 
that beauty is only fitness, and that while there is a 
beauty of gold and mahogany, there is also a beauty 
of iron and hemlock, of cypress and of chestnut. 
There is a beauty of marble balusters and carved 
stairways, but when Whistler painted the lovely 
portrait of his mother, the chosen background was 
the soft grey of a plastered wall. 

I am not merely making the claim that simphcity 
is cheap and cleanly, but that it is more beautiful 
than elaboration as a background to the best of our 
lives. Did you ever stop to think that the average 
stairway has from fifty to a hundred balusters, each 
one of which cost money to put in, every twist and 
turning of which means dirt and work in cleaning? 
And every bead and fillet in every moulding in your 
house means more dirt and more cleaning. And 
what do you buy with this care and worry ? Cer- 
tainly not always or even often, beauty, or at least 
not the only beauty. 

The Japanese have taught us, among some other 
things, the beauty of the grain of even the commonest 
woods. Most of their exquisitely toned work is in 
soft spruce-like woods. The use of perfectly plain 
casings with a little care in selection and treatment, 
would give our houses a distinction not otherwise 
obtainable in work of moderate cost. 



40 



Choosing Simple Materials for the House 







HOW NATURE HELPS 




A STUCCO HOUSE AT ROSE VALLEY 



Choosing Simple Materials for the House 



41 



The Japanese not only know the beauty of simple 
backgrounds for their priceless treasures, but they 
also know that the value of this beauty is enormously 
enhanced by the fact that the treasures they show 
have no competitors. These are locked away in 
cupboards for the joy of another day. When they 
adorn with flowers, it is with no mere overpowering 
mass, but exquisite arrangements of line and color 
of which vase or bowl, leaf, branch, blossom and grey 
or dull gold silk or paper background, form one 
simple and harmonious whole. How we "civilized" 
people envy them, and how little we emulate their 
methods! It is not necessary or wise that we should 
copy them. Flower arrangements and delicate 



bronze or porcelain may not be our forte. But the 
law of contrasts is eternal, and simplicity is ever the 
best setting, either for modest utility or most exquisite 
work of art, and human life is our masterpiece, 
deserving the best of our thought for its setting. 

The photographs accompanying this article are in 
a large part from the house and studios built for 
Charles H. and Alice Barber Stephens at Rose 
Valley. The studios are in an old stone barn the 
large doors of which now form the north windows and 
skylights of the studios, and the house has been built 
at one end of the old barn. It has been the effort in 
this and the other work shown to get just such a local 
character as the article is intended to advocate. 




WHEN NATURE HAS COMPLETED THE WORK 



A Summer Home on a Farm 



An Architect's Dream 

Sketches by Elmer G?^ay 



THIS house was designed to serve a very interesting double 
purpose. During eight months of the year, including the 
winter season, it is the residence of a gentleman farmer of moderate 
means and his family. During the summer months it is intended 
to accommodate in addition, a house party. In order that these 
two uses may be kept quite distinct, and the house reduced to a 
reasonable size for winter use, the guest rooms occupy a one-story 
extension enclosing the upper end of the garden. The building 
occupies a wooded knoll overlooking the wmdmg portions of a 
river that is lined with overhanging willows and white birches, and 
is flanked by meadows and rolling fields. The living-room and its 
veranda is so placed that this charming view may be enjoyed to its 
fullest extent. The building is designed on the simplest lines, 
and is built of inexpensive materials. The result has been in 
every way successful, and affords a most appealing hint for all 
other home builders so fortunately situated. 




THE LIVING-ROOM 




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THE RIVER FRONT 



42 



A Summer Home on a Farm 



43 




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THE LANDWARD FRONT 






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PLAN OF THE PROPERTY 



■ . I ll"' . *iA< S 




THE GARDEN FRONT 




A Suburban House in Chicago 

Hmtdy ^ Cady, Architects 

THIS design has been selected for illustration here 
chiefly on account of the interest attached to the 
plan and its position upon the lot. It is typical of a large 
number of suburban houses of moderate cost, and 
affords a very interesting study. 

The house and lot are perhaps unusual in their relation 
to each other, in that the lot is shallow with respect to its 
street frontage, and it is the long side of the house which 
faces the street, rather than the shorter end. The house 
is built of brick with white wooden veranda, and the 
general treatment is generally Colonial in feeling. The 
plan is a good one, except that one would suggest chang- 
ing places with respect to the dining-room and the recep- 
tion-room. A dining-room whose only entrance is 
immediately at the front door is distinctly an annoyance. 

This change, however, would depend somewhat upon the point of the compass, of which no indication is offered by the drawing. In fact, 
if circumstances permitted, it would be well to reverse the plan of the house, after making the change already suggested. 

A great deal can be done in the way of planting and flower gardening in a lot of this size, and flower lovers would feel perhaps that 
their favorites were inadequately represented upon this plan. There is, perhaps, a tendency to spottiness which would prove dis- 
agreeable in execution. While therefore, the exterior and interior of the house are very agreeable, the plan in its details and the 
planting of the lot, might possibly be changed to advantage. The general character of the house is illustrated in the cuts shown at 
the bottom of the page and its cost might be very well controlled to come within the limit set for houses in this volume. 

The house and its relation to the lot have been referred to as unusual. As has been noted elsewhere in an article on the choice of site, the 
typical suburban lot is one having a narrow frontage on the principal street. This necessitates a house plan which is a long, narrow rec- 
tangle, with the principal rooms on or near the narrow end. This, of course, is a much more difficult problem in house planning than the 
one here shown, and solutions of this phase of the problem are shown on several pages of this book. In the present case, all the principal 
rooms in the house have an agreeable outlook, and all of the family bedrooms would have an equally fortunate situation. Perhaps an 
unnecessary amount of space is shown in this plan for the rear staircase, and where less space for this feature is available, it will serve 
its purpose reasonably well if it is carried only up to the first landing of the main stairs. This shields all traffic of the kitchen depart- 
ment and the upper stories of the house from the principal entrance and living-rooms on the ground floor, although, of course, it is better 
where space can be had to carry the rear stairs complete to the second floor, if not to the third. Taken as a whole, the house is one which 
is well worth the attention of our readers, as it is quite 
possible to adjust it to meet most individual needs. 



Plan of the House and Grounds 





THE LIVING-ROOM 



A DETAIL OF THE FRONT ENTRANCE 



44 



A Suburban House at Germantown, Pa. 



Alfred Cookman Cass, Architect 



THIS house is built upon a lot fifty-six feet wide, but is exceptionally 
fortunate in enjoying a very agreeable outlook over a large adjoining 
property. The house is fully illustrated on the following pages, and it is only 
necessary to add that the first story is built of varying shades of dark red 
brick laid in English bond in a yellow gray mortar. The joints are wide and 
match the color of the rough plaster which covers the walls above the second 
story. The sash and wmdow trims are painted white, and the outside shut- 
ters are painted to match the shingles, which are the roughest and heaviest 
split cypress shingles from the Florida swamps, stained dark red brown. 
Inside the house, simple detail and quiet color are the prevailing elements. 
The walls throughout are tinted a pale yellow on a sand finish plaster, and 
the trimming is nearly white, while the dark brown Georgia pine floors are 
repeated in several of the rooms with still darker oak beams. Most of the 
joinery has been mortised and pinned together in the old-fashioned way and 
that meaningless multiplication of mouldings which is the mark of all common- 
place design has been frankly avoided. 




THE STAIR HALL 




THE LIVING-ROOM 



45 



46 



A Suburban House at Germantown, Pa. 




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PLANS OF THE HOUSE AND LOT 



A Suburban House at Germantown, Pa., 



47 




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48 



A Suburban House at Germantown, Pa. 




THE STREET FRONT 




THE DINING-ROOM 



IV 

Fireproof ing the House 



Emile G. Perrot 

Of Ballinger 6? Ferrot, Architects 



^ I ^HE adage, "A burnt child dreads the fire," 
-^ while applying to the individual, does not 
seem to apply with as much force when referred to 
man in general. This is significant when taken in 
connection with the subject of this paper. Notwith- 
standing the dangers and hazard associated with 
non-fireproof dwelling-houses and the loss of life 
and property incidental thereto, it is astonishing 
what little advance has been made in the construction 
of fireproof dwelling-houses. This state of alfairs is 
all the more surprising when we consider the progress 
that has been made in fireproof construction, espec- 
ially in types applicable to house construction. 

The risk of life in dwellings from fire is considerable 
and causes much anxiety to householders with 
antipathy to fire due to former experience or an 
intihiate knowledge of the sufferings and loss from 
this cause by friends and acquaintances. The 
danger is all the greater in dwellings on account of 
the fact that the modern dwelling is a tinder-box, 
and little time elapses from the incipient flame to the 
fully developed fire. 

Again, the plea for fireproof dwellings is strength- 
ened by the fact that for many hours at a time 
dwellings are left unwatched and uncared for, either 
because of the absence of the occupants, or their 
retirement for the night. Thus it is that a fire in 
this character of building frequently gains such head- 
way as to render the saving of life or property very 
difficult, and in many cases impossible. Even 
where there is no loss of life, the loss of personal 
property, and reverenced heirlooms, to which clings 
the association of several generations, is most unfor- 
tunate and irreparable, as they can never be replaced. 
This fact should be sufficient to impress upon the 
thinking class of people the desirability of providing 
against destruction in their homes by fire. 

While it is true that the causes of fires in dwellings 
are few, in comparison with those in the many other 
buildings not used for domestic purposes, they are 
sufficient in number and so difficult to guard against 
as readily to warrant the erection of a structure as 
little liable to ignition and destruction by fire as 
possible. 

Among some of the readily traceable sources of 
fire in dwellings are lightning, crossed electric wires. 



defective fixtures, imperfectly constructed heating 
apparatus, mice nibbling matches or insulation, 
spontaneous combustion and carelessness of servants. 
A potent fact operating to militate against a better 
class of construction is that when urban and sub- 
urban houses are built, their construction is left 
largely to the operative builder and land speculator 
or promoter. The standard set by these builders 
has always been such as would make a quick return 
of money for a minimum expenditure. Further, 
the lack of employment of expert scientific skill tends 
to mediocrity. Even where trained architects have 
been called in to assist in the development of a project, 
precedent and the desire to meet competition have 
kept the construction in the narrow grooves laid 
down by custom. 

It will be my endeavor in what follows to bring 
before my readers what has been done in the fire- 
proofing of houses of medium cost, and to lay before 
them the various types of fireproofing applicable to 
house construction. 

Under a general classification, the methods of fire- 
proofing used to-day may be grouped into two main 
divisions, namely, "semi-fireproof" and "fireproof." 

Under the first division come such types of con- 
struction as, while not intended to possess all the 
fire-resisting qualities necessary to class them in 
the latter division, nevertheless greatly reduce the 
danger of the destruction of the building in the 
event of fire. In this class wood is employed in some 
form or other as a supporting material. 

In the fireproof division are included such types of 
construction as aim to eliminate from the supporting 
parts all combustible materials, thus rendering 
impossible the destruction of the building in the 
event of the occurrence of a fire. A further improve- 
ment consists in making not only the structural 
parts fireproof but the finished features as well, such 
as the interior and exterior trim. 

It may be well to mention at this stage that the pop- 
ular criticism,- so often expressed, questioning the fire- 
proof quality of so-called fireproof buildings, is 
largely due to the misrepresentation of the press con- 
cerning fireproof structures. What is advertised 
as a fireproof building is frequently far from being 
fireproof in the professional meaning of the word. 



49 



50 



Fireproofing the House 




A CONCRETE CHAPEL 




ONE TYPE OF FIREPROOF BUILDING 



Fireproofing the House 



51 



Notwithstanding steel, iron and terra-cotta or con- 
crete may be used in the structure, it requires more 
than the mere use of these or other non-combustible 
materials to constitute a fireproof building. It 
requires scientific placing of the materials and the 
thorough covering of the steel or iron, together with 
a successful test of the construction in an actual fire 
under supervision of experts before any construction 
can be declared fireproof. 

There are numerous types of fireproof construc- 
tion which comply with the above requirements and 
which are being successfully used in buildings of all 
classes, the description of which will be taken up 
later. 

The structural elements of a house requiring con- 
sideration from the fireproof standpoint are the walls, 
floors, partitions and roof. Of course, the walls 
should be built of some non-combustible material, 
and this element of the house in the better grade is 
usually so constructed; the remaining elements are 
the ones usually neglected, hence, we will discuss 
these in detail. 

Floors. — The floor consists of girders, beams, and 
the covering over the beams. The last mentioned 
element of construction when of wood may consist ot 
the "under flooring" and "top" or finished flooring, 
while if fireproof the general name of "slab" or 
"plate" is applicable; (the under flooring in wood 
construction corresponding to the slab or plate in 
fireproof construction.) 

Among the most generally accepted types of semi- 
fireproof construction is one suitable for floors when a 
beam ceiling effect is desired; the heavy beams are 
spaced so as to give the desired effect in the finished 
room; the fireproof floor plate or slab is laid directhon 
top of the beams and reinforced with steel rods or metal 
webbing to give it sufficient strength as a beam and 
to prevent cracking of the concrete under tempera- 
ture changes. The finished floor can be of wood, 
tile or mosaic; if of wood, sleepers must be laid on the 
slab with a concrete filling between to hold them in 
place, and the flooring boards nailed to these sleepers. 
If mosaic is desired, this is laid directly on the slab, 
having the necessary concrete base under it. In 
former times it was customary to lay the tile floors 
over wooden planking supported by the heavy beams. 
It is interesting to note the advance made in mediae- 
val times in a semi-fireproof form of floor construc- 
tion. 

Viewing the work of these old but successful con- 
structors it seems pertinent that we should, right here, 
make a plea for honest construction on the part of our 
architects and builders. Modern house construc- 
tion seems to have fallen from the lofty position it 
should assume, and the tendency has been to use 
false beams, ceilings, etc., when, if we investigate the 



prototypes of such styles, we shall find that their 
designers were very conscientious in having the con- 
struction appear in the finished design; for, after all, 
true architecture is nothing more than "ornamented 
construction." Deprive architecture of its con- 
structive elements and we rob it of its ver}' soul and 
life. There is no good reason why show beams in a 
house of to-day should not support the weight of the 
floor above instead of being a mere sham. 

There is another type of semi-fireproof con- 
struction. This consists of wooden joists spanning 
from wall to wall, or if the span is great, having an 
intermediate support on a partition or girder; 
the beams have bolted on their side steel angle 
bars bent to a radius, and made to support a 
fireproof filling, which acts as a firestop between 
floors and at the same time tends considerably to 
stiffen the beams. 

Under the head of fireproof construction come 
those types of construction which not only eliminate 
wood from the supporting members of a building 
but also afford protection from fire for the steel or 
iron which may be used in the structural parts. 
This latter feature is an indispensable requirement 
for a fireproof structure. 

Speaking in broad terms, we may subdivide fire- 
proof construction into two divisions; one embrac- 
ing those types which use rolled steel shapes as 
supporting members fireproofed with terra-cotta or 
other non-combustible materials; and the other 
types which use concrete throughout, reinforced by a 
metal fabric or bars of steel or iron, known as "rein- 
forced concrete. " 

For dwelling-house construction both divisions 
contain types eminently fitted for this class of 
buildmg. 

There is another t\pe of construction in which 
steel beams are used to support the weight of the 
floor and the terra-cotta acts only as a filling. In 
lieu of the terra-cotta arch sometimes a concrete arch 
is used either with a metal centre or without. This 
type ot fireproofing has a flat ceiling formed of metal 
lath and plaster. 

There are numerous systems in which either terra- 
cotta or concrete is used between steel beams for 
fireproofing, but the types shown serve to illustrate 
the principles upon which these systems are based. 
These systems, while being thoroughly practical 
for house construction, are somewhat more costly 
than the types which follow. 

Another type of construction thoroughly ap- 
plicable to dwelling houses, while at the same time 
not so expensive as the former types has 
steel beams to support the tiles, and the 
floor is made self-supporting by introducing 
tee bars between each row of tile, so that 
the terra-cotta tiles are made to span long distances 



52 



Fireproofing the House 



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A COTTAGE AT GERMANTOWN 

George Spencer Morris, Architect 




A FIREPROOF VERANDA 




ANOTHER VIEW OF THE GERMANTOWN COTTAGE 



Fireproofing the House 



53 



without the aid of intermediate steel beams; this 
reduces the cost of the floor a considerable amount. 
The photograph, page 50, shows a finished house 
erected near Philadelphia in which this construction 
was used for floors. The partitions were formed 
of hollow terra-cotta blocks and the roof of tile 
supported upon tee bars. See page 54. 

There are several modifications of this style of 
floor construction, all depending on terra-cotta to 
resist the compression which occurs at the top of the 
beam or floor and depending on steel or iron rolled 
shapes or metal webbing placed near the bottom of 
the floor to resist the tensile stresses which occur in 
that part of the beam. 

Under the sub-division of reinforced concrete, 
we have a type of construction which has been very 
little used in this country for dwelling-house con- 
struction, but has been used for larger and heavier 
types of building. However, a start has been made 
in the use of this type of construction for dwellings 
and for buildings of similar light nature. 

The principle of reinforced concrete, as used for 
supporting members of a building, such as girders, 
beams, lintels, is based on the theory that every 
simple beam, loaded either uniformly over its entire 
length or with the weight concentrated at any point 
thereof, is in compression at the top and in tension 
at the bottom: that is, the tendency is for the beam 
to crush at the top, and to pull apart at the bottom. 
By using steel bars of the proper area and at the 
proper location to resist the tension in the beam and 
arranging the concrete so as to resist the compres- 
sion, the stresses in the beam will be in equilibrium; 
or, in other words, the beam will sustain the load for 
which it is designed. 

Furthermore, in reinforced concrete, the con- 
struction assumes the character of a monolith, and 
by reason of this fact the beam is fixed at the ends 
and a reversal of the strains is produced in the beam 
adjacent to the supports, so that the tensile forces are 
not on the bottom of the beam for its entire length, 
but near the supports, shift to the top oi the beam: 
hence, it is necessary to reinforce this top part with 
steel to prevent the top of the beam from cracking. 
In addition to this, other stresses (called shear) are 
produced within the beam, which have to be resisted, 
hence, the adoption of stirrups running from the 
bottom to the top of the beam. 

If a flat ceiling is desired, a combination construc- 
tion is used in w^hich terra-cotta tile or plaster of Paris 
centres are used to fill in the space between the beams, 
which are set much closer together and need not 
be so deep, thus saving head room. 

There are several other long span systems of rein- 
forced concrete, spanning from wall to wall, giving 
a flat ceiling in the rooms that employ only a concrete 



slab reinforced on the bottom with a webbing of 
metal strengthened with wire cables or other method 
of reinforcement. 

Walls. — The use of concrete for walls is becoming 
more common; in fact,' entire buildings are now 
being erected of this material with astonishing results, 
which promises a departure in the style of decoration, 
so that what has hitherto been regarded as the stand- 
ard of excellence in design for dwelling houses and 
like buildings will but little influence this work. 

I do not refer to the hideous and lifeless decoration 
which we see flaunting us at every turn where con- 
crete blocks are used. I deprecate the advancement 
of this form of construction as much as the present 
tin or cast iron fronts; but I speak for the construc- 
tion which makes of the walls a monolith with the 
decoration incorporated with the construction. Where 
richness is desired the introduction of colored 
mosaic or tiles in the decoration will be found to lend 
to the design a beauty and fullness that rivals any 
other method of decoration. A number of build- 
ings have been built of this construction, notably the 
Blejiheim Hotel, Atlantic City. 

A ver}^ successful fireproof house was built 
at Allentown, Pa., in which the walls and ornamen- 
tation are made of concrete. Part of the interior 
of the house is also fireproof construction, consisting 
of concrete slabs reinforced with expanded metal 
supported upon steel beams. 

Page 50 shows a concrete chapel in the 
Spanish Mission style, ornamented with marble 
mosaic. This building has been erected at Auries- 
ville, N. Y., and the ornamentation was borrowed 
from Indian patterns. The Spanish Mission style 
lends itself particularly to this system of construction 
and numerous examples of the style abound in this 
country. 

Partitions. — Partitions are either'^built of hollow 
terra-cotta or plaster blocks and plastered or made 
of solid plaster stiffened with metal lath braced with 
iron channels or angles. 

Roofs. — The usual method of constructing a fire- 
proof roof w^iere structural steel is used is to make 
the roof of tee bars supported upon steel beams and 
fill in between the bars with terra-cotta book tile 
about 3 inches thick, as shown on page 54; on top of 
this a concrete filling can be placed in which are 
embedded wood sleepers to secure the tile or slate. 
Sometimes the tile or slate is nailed directly to the 
book tile, if the latter are made porous. 

Where lightness and cheapness are desired, a 
special form of tile is used which is made to set 
directly on angle or tee bars without any filling of 
terra-cotta. This is especially adapted to house con- 
struction. 



54 



Fireproofing the House 




A FIREPROOF ROOF 




A FIREPROOF GARAGE 



Fireproofing the House 



55 



Page 54 shows a garage, the walls of which are 
built of terra-cotta block. The floor of the loft is 
the long span terra-cotta type. The roof is of tile 
supported upon tee bars. This little house is a very 
good example of fireproofing. The exterior is 
plastered and pebble-dashed. 

Reinforced concrete roofs are constructed similar 
to reinforced concrete floors, but of lighter construc- 
tion. 

Stairs. — Fireproof stairs are constructed with steel 
horses, cast iron treads and risers, or marble, slate, 
or other similar material, secured to iron supports. 
The steel horses, if desired, can be fireproofed with 
terra-cotta blocks or concrete, also soffits of stairs 
can be likewise fireproofed. This method, however, 
makes the stairs bulky, and, for domestic work, 
would be too expensive. 

They can also be made of reinforced concrete 
throughout, having a finished coat of cement for 
treads and risers, or covered with wood. Another 
method of finishing the treads and risers consists 
of coating the concrete with J inch thickness of 
magnesialith patent flooring or similar material. 
This makes a very good finish, and can be obtain- 
ed in different colors. 

In building reinforced concrete stairs, it is not 
necessary to use horses, the whole flight being con- 
sidered as an inclined beam, and reinforced with rods 
or metal fabric in the soffit. The soffit and outside 
string of the stairs can be plastered or ornamented as 
desired. 

Cost. — By comparison of the cost of fireproof 
construction versus wood construction for d\\ellino;- 
houses, it is found the additional cost for the former 
is not as great as has been imagined, and, in fact, 
isTso little in excess of the non-fireproof type as to 
make the use of fireproof construction a possibility 
for all intending to build. 

In several instances, the writer has obtained bids 
on buildings designed in wood construction, and also 
in reinforced concrete fireproof construction. The 



actual diff'erence in the cost of the fireproof over the 
wood construction of a cottage forming one of a 
group of buildings of an institution, costing in the 
neighborhood of ^16,000, was only 14 per cent. 
This, however, did not include a fireproof roof, 
although the interior partitions and ceiling under the 
roof were fireproofed. 

In another instance, a building costing ^20,000, 
in which every part was fireproofed, including the 
ceiling, partitions, roofs and stairs, cost only about 
22 per cent more than the same building of the 
usual construction. This is a very small amount 
compared with the actual gain in durability, pro- 
tection from fire, etc. 

Further, a building of fireproof construction is 
immune to disfiguring cracks in the plastering so 
prevalent from the shrinking in wood construction. 
This advantage is of considerable moment if the 
decorations in a house are of any permanent character, 
for they would be seriously damaged by the cracking 
of the plaster. 

It would seem, therefore, taking all things into 
consideration, that, for medium-priced houses, not 
to mention the more expensive ones, the extra ex- 
pense involved in making the construction fireproof 
would more than pay for itself in advantages gained. 

Another small building near Philadelphia, in 
connection with an institution, was made fireproof 
by using reinforced concrete in the floors and solid 
plaster partitions; the roof, however, is of the usual 
wood construction, covered with slate. In this case, 
the building is used for an infirmary and it was 
deemed that the protection aftorded from fire more 
than outweighed the additional expense, which, as 
before stated, was 14 per cent more than the wood 
construction. -4 

From present indications, it would appear that the 
time is not far distant when wood will be eliminated 
from the construction and finish ot our better srade 
of houses, and methods ot construction and|^finish 
employed which will make the buildings not only 
fireproof, but much more solid, and hygienic in every 
respect. 















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A California Bungalow 



fFillis Toll, Architect 



THIS characteristic and charming example of a California home 
has been built in Santa Clara County. Like so much that is 
good in modern California work, it is modeled after the old missions. 
The house faces east and lies about 300 feet above the valley bottom. 
Mount Hamilton and the Lick Observatory are in full view. Live 
oaks, orange trees, ivy and orchards form the setting. It will be 



seen from the views that the house presents large, unbroken surfaces 
without fussy detail. The walls are covered with a nearly white 
stucco, and the roofs are covered with bright red Mexican terra- 
cotta tile. Lilies and lotus plants thrive in the water garden, and the 
whole scene is one of blooming verdure, from which the red roofs 
of the house appear against a deep blue sky. 



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3. .Santa Clara Co. 


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PLAN OF THE HOUSE 




THE FRONT OF THE HOUSE 



56 



A California Bungalow 



67 




THE OPEN CORRIDOR 




VIEW FROM THE TERRACE 



58 



A California Bungalow 




AN OUTDOOR LIVING-ROOM 




THE REAR OF THE HOUSE 



A Cottage Built of Stucco 




THE ENTRANCE FRONT 





rian of the First P'loor 



Plan of the Second Floor 



59 



60 



A Cottage Bviilt of Stucco 



ALTHOUGH this house was built to accommodate an artist's 
studio, and had to be buih with the utmost economy, it is 
very well adapted to the more ordinary claims of domestic life, 
restricted by a similar condition. The house is a frame after the 
usual manner of wooden houses. This was covered with galvanized 
woven wire netting, to which were applied two coats of Portland 
cement mixed with equal parts of stone and fine gravel. This gives 
the house the appearance of being an ordinary stucco house, and has 
proved impervious to heat and cold, and all other vicissitudes of 
weather. The plans of the house were arranged to meet the hunger- 
ing of the city dweller for abundance of light and fresh air. The 
eaves of the house project i8" beyond the walls, the under surface 
being ceiled with North Carolina pine varnished. The roofs are 
covered with shingles and are stained a weathered brown, which 
combined with the stone gray of the stucco and a light yellow gray 
of the second floor window trim forms the color scheme. Rails and 
posts of the veranda are stained to match the roof. The dining-room 
fireplace is built of a soft gray yellow Roman brick. The opening 
is faced with blocks of gray sandstone, and above the mantel shelf is 
a plaster panel on which a pastoral scene is painted. The wood 
work of the living-room is cypress, stained a soft gray green, produced 
by an inexpensive mixture of coal tar and turpentine to which a 
little blue was added, applied with a brush and wiped off. This 
gives an extremely soft eflFect, ranging from a delicate green tone to 
an orange where the grain of the woodwork showed through. The 
walls are tinted a light warm yellow gray, and the ceiling between the 
wooden beams the same color, but still lighter in tone. 

The floor was stained with a gray brown tar preparation, mixed 
with hard oil and toned with umber, on which is spread a large 
cashmere rug with tones of dull yellow, dark red and deep purple. 
Smaller rugs of the same tones were scattered about elsewhere. 
The andirons, fire set and screen, the lamps and gas fixtures were 
old brass. These were made to order by a small manufacturing 
company at an expense no greater than for ordinary fixtures of stock 
patterns. With this color scheme as a background, straight backed 
and arm chairs of dead black, tables of old mahogany, a Chinese 
lantern of teak, Russian copper and dull brass urns, and vases of 




THE MAIN STAIRWAY 



mellow satsuma, hangings in soft yellow, old gold and purple completed the coloring. In the dining-room the woodwork is stained 
a weather oak brown with a dead finish. To the height of the plate rail the plaster is tinted a maroon to harmonize with the dark 
fireplace. The rough cast plaster in the intermediate panels is light terra-cotta, and the narrow panels in the frieze show a pale, 
warm yellow. 

The dining-room window was reproduced from a sketch made by the owner in Chester. It is eight feet long and four and a half 
feet high. The upper sash was stationary; the lower was hinged to open out. All of the woodwork in the hallway is treated to 
match that in the living-room. The plaster in the second floor rooms was given a smooth finish and covered with calcimine for 
the^first year, after which suitable papers will be put on. The house is heated by steam. 




AN ENTRANCE GATE 



A Cottage Built of Stucco 



61 




62 



A Cottage Built of Stucco 




A Cottage Built of Stucco 



63 




THE DINING-ROOM FIREPLACE 




A HOUSE TERRACE 



A 

Dutch 

Colonial 

House 

Walter P, Ci^abtree, 
Architect 




FRONT VIEW OF THE HOUSE 




Plan of the Ground Floor 



Plan of the Second Floor 





THE HALL 



THE LIVING-ROOM 



64 



Two Small Houses 




Plan of the First Floor 




Plan of the Second Floor 





Plan of the First Floor 




Plan of the Second Floor 




A COMFORTABLE HOUSE 

SKi'MOUit IS. Locke, Architect 



A NEW HOUSE ON OLD LINES 

("HAiiLES K. I'atch. Arcliiloct 



65 




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66 



V 

The Interior Finish and Furnishing of 

the Small House 

By Margaret Greenleaf 



Editor of House and Garden 



TO-DAY the small house is more seriously 
considered than ever before. In the suburbs 
of our great cities and many of the smaller towns this 
fact is illustrated forcibly by the style of house which, 
during the last decade, has been gradually superse- 
ding the cottage of earlier times. In the young cities 
of the middle and far West this is especially notice- 
able, each locality showing, even in its small houses, 
some distinctive characteristic in its architecture. 
In Southern California the bungalow has sprung up 
almost like a mushroom in a night; the spreading 
eaves, the wide shadowed veranda, the convenient 
and concentrated arrangement of the one floor, is 
well suited to the needs of that climate and country. 

The family man of small means, who, until recent- 
ly, had no thought or ambition other than to secure 
the most desirable location and a cottage in the best 
repair for his ^20 a month, has now realized that for 
a like monthly payment the property may become 
his own. With this realization has awakened the 
ambition to make of his house, however small, a 
real home, — this explains the change in the archi- 
tecture of the small house in recent years. When 
an architect plans for the individual the result is, or 
should be, characteristic, and therefore much more 
interesting than where one design serves for dozens 
of houses. 

The wise man in building for himself a home, con- 
siders site, environment, and the proposed floor plan 
relatively, and designs his interior decoration and 
even furnishing, with these various points well in 
mind. Fortunately, with the passing of jig-saw work 
and grills from the wood trim of the interior, the brass 
and onyx table, the plush covered rocker, with all 
that these stand for in furniture, is fast disappearing. 

Suitability, dignity and simplicity of line and treat- 
ment, well handled masses of color, with values care- 
fully considered, are the points that make for success 
in the interior finish, decoration, and furnishing of a 
small house. However inexpensive the wood chosen 
for the standing woodwork, it is now possible to 
obtain beautiful effects by its treatment with stains 
and dull varnishes. Built-in seats, ingle-nooks, 
bookcases, buffets, etc., go far toward furnishing the 



rooms, and at small additional expense when con- 
sidered in the original plan of the house. Windows 
also may be made most decorative. 

The architectural detail of the interior of a resi- 
dence should be in complete harmony with the 
exterior. This is, of course, the responsibility of the 
architect. The wall covering, drapery, and furni- 
ture, however, are not always so well selected, yet 
in these details harmony is quite as important. 

The fan-shaped transom and leaded side lights 
which frame the ivory panels of a Colonial front door 
should light a hallway where the standing woodwork 
is of ivory enamel, accentuated by mahogany doors, 
with the hand-rail and newel post of the stairs also 
of mahogany. So far the architect's hand is shown. 
But to complete this hall a paper of Colonial design 
with furniture to match should be selected. This 
consideration of exterior, interior and furnishing 
together, is applicable to the small house as well as 
to the mansion. 

In deciding the color scheme for the interior of a 
house the woodwork is frequently made the key-note 
for the whole. A stain of some soft nut-brown shade 
— seemingly Nature's own coloring — is given the 
dull finish that serves best to bring out the full beauty 
of the grain. Where rooms open well together the 
tone dominating the principal room should be re- 
peated in the adjoining apartments. 

Many householders are possessed of certain 
furnishings which, for reasons of economy, or from 
association must be retained. When this is so these 
should be carefully looked over and mentally ad- 
justed to the new rooms. By having them well in 
mind that scheme of finish and decoration can be 
determined upon which will prove the best setting 
for them. 

There is no call, and indeed, no place for period 
furnishing in the small and inexpensive house. If 
one be the fortunate possessor of some old pieces of 
mahogany, suggestive of Colonial days, it is well in 
making new purchases to select something built 
on Chippendale, Heppelwhite Colonial, or Georgian 
lines. There is an excellent chair called "Windsor" 
fashioned after those used by the Pilgrim fathers, and 

67 




68 



The Interior Finish and Furnishing of the Small House 



69 



brought by them overseas. These are made in 
mahogany and birch, and sell for six and eight dollars 
each, and may be given any finish desired; not only 
are the lines of these chairs good, but they are also 
most comfortable. 

In the furnishing of a house where the interior 
architectural detail shows the simple lines of the one 
here described, there is no furniture more fitting than 
that of the so-called Mission or Arts and Crafts. It 
is not, however, impossible to use a piece or two of 
this style furniture where other chairs and tables are 
of mahogany, provided the latter are not Oriental 
or French in style. 

The house of which this article treats was well 
planned and well built, and in the planning the needs 
of its occupants were carefully considered and met. 

The low-studded front door was of Dutch design, 
the upper section filled with leaded bull's-eye glass, 
against which hung a dull green curtain of raw silk. 
This wide door opened hospitably into a living-hall, 
in dimensions 12x18 feet; the standing woodwork, 
including wainscot and beams, was entirely simple 
in form and treatment. The wainscot showed flat 
panels with unmoulded stiles and rails. The wood 
was selected ash, the beautiful grain well brought out 
by the greenish-brown stain known as bog oak, — 
this was given a perfectly flat finish. The three feet 
of wall above the wainscot to the heavy molding at the 
ceiling line was covered in tapestry paper showing 
the soft greens of foliage, picked out with some yellow 
and the dull brown of tree boles melting into a smoky 
blue background. This paper cost but sixty cents 
a roll of eight yards, and made a most acceptable 
wall covering used above the brown green of the 
wainscot. The yellow tones shown in some of the 
foliage was repeated in the ceiling tints. This 
room opened into the dining-room. The wide fire- 
place here was flanked on either side by built-in seats 
or ingle-nooks, above which shelves were set. The 
woodwork in this room was more decidedly brown, 
showing no green, but harmonized perfectly with 
that of the hall. 

The dining-room furniture had been purchased in 
an unfinished state, was also of ash, and stained and 
finished to match the brown woodwork. The rough 
plaster between the beams of the ceiling and showing 
above the wainscot, was stained a deep pumpkin- 
yellow, — a color which was a stronger shade of that 
used on the ceiling in the hall. The casement win- 
dows showed small square panes. At the western 
end of the room these were set high above the wain- 
scot. The wide shelf which formed the sill, held a 
row of blue and white pots, in which symmetrical 
dwarf pine trees were planted. Run on slender 
brass rods, placed close against the glass, were yellow 
soft linen curtains, — these had been made from old 
linen sheets, dyed to exactly match the tint of the 
plaster. 



When the room was completed it was discovered 
that the Milwaukee brick, of which the fireplace and 
mantel were made, showed an irregularity of color 
that in some places was not in harmony with the color 
of side walls and curtains; it was therefore deter- 
mined to stain these. The mortar was carefully 
scraped out and the brick given a coat of Pollard 
oak wood tint; this brought them to a more even 
tone, and showed a tint of brown harmonizing with, 
though much lighter than, the color of the woodwork. 
The mortar was stained in mixing and showed al- 
most black when the bricks were repointed. The 
fixtures and hardware in this room were of wrought 
iron, simple almost to crudeness in design and make. 
Over the centre of the dining-table, suspended from 
the beam above by iron chains, was a spreading 
shade of porcelain; over this was placed a flounce 
of fluted silk, in a much deeper, browner shade of 
yellow than that used on the plaster; this was trim- 
med about with heavy silk fringe in the same color. 
The effect was extremely decorative and rich in 
appearance, the cost, however, was but little. Clus- 
tered under this porcelain shade was a group of 
electric light bulbs. 

Much blue and white china was used in this din- 
ing-room. Some especially good pieces selected for 
decorative use were set upon the plate rail, which 
finished the wainscot, where they showed well against 
the yellow background. On a small teak-wood 
stand on the dining-table was a wide-lipped brass 
basin. From the centre of this, apparently unsup- 
ported, sprung straight stalks of blue flags, the sword 
like leaves and conventional blossoms making a most 
decorative effect. This brass bowl had been picked 
up in Chinatown and was a barber's bowl. The 
joined sections of metal set in the bottom of it were 
also Chinese in construction and was known as a 
turtle, the stems of the flowers were introduced into 
each section and thus held firmly in place, the bowl 
being half filled with water. 

A blue, white and gray Japanese rug was used 
under the table, the floor of maple having been 
treated to a coat of golden-yellow stain was finished 
with a soft polish. The same stain and finish were 
used on the floors throughout the house, all those on 
the first floor being of maple. 

The living-hall, which, perhaps, by right of pre- 
cedence, should have been described first, had 
curtains in its doorway of a domestic tapestry which 
repeated the color and design of the tapestr}' paper 
used above the wainscot, — this tapestry is fifty inches 
in width and sells for ^2.75 a yard. On the dining- 
room side of the door a dull blue cotton velvet 
was used as the lining. These curtains were 
made, as were all door curtains throughout the house, 
without interlining, and the edges closely stitched 
in several rows as a finish. No cord or gimp was 
introduced, they were run by a loose casing at the 




70 



The Interior Finish and Furnishing of the Small House 71 



top on the curtain pole. The first hanging of these 
curtains had been from rings; these, however, were 
soon discarded for the other arrangement, as the 
folds under this treatment were more accurate, and 
there was no sagging. 

Dull green raw silk, almost in pastel shade, 
was used for the curtains at the casement windows, 
these were run on a rod set close to the glass, and 
finished with a three inch hem. The window seats, 
of which there were two, were upholstered in the 
tapestry, as was one large winged chair, which was 
invitingly placed near the reading-table. 

Carefully chosen and beautiful Oriental rugs 
were used on the floor,— these had been picked up 
at various auctions, and, save in time expended in 
seeking them, had been moderate in price. A 
Khiva Bokhara, showing the beautiful mulberry red 
one finds in them, mingled slightly with dull blues, 
greens and black, was the chef-d'oeuvre among them. 
The fixtures in this room, as well as the hardware, 
were of brush brass, simple in design. The built- 
in book-shelves were well filled and much care was 
taken in the placing of books to make an attractive 
color arrangement of their bindings. No smallest 
detail of color effect was missed in the furnishing of 
this room. The table, Morris chair, several straight 
chairs, and the desk were all of Arts and Crafts 
design and of black oak. The mulberry red of the 
Khiva rug was repeated in the crinkled sheepskin 
with which the cushions of the Morris chair were 
covered. A tall green vase of Chinese ware had been 
converted into a lamp which wore a shade of pierced 
metal, lined with green silk. Few pictures were 
used. Some pieces of copper and brass in quaint 
shapes were placed decoratively; against the wain- 
scot a fragment of plaster frieze was hung, stained 
brownish yellow and given a wax finish. Except 
the rugs in this room there was nothing which was 
really costly in its furnishing. The chairs and 
heavy table had been purchased from the same firm 
who made the dining-room set. This furniture can 
be had in all of the simple designs suggestive of the 
Arts and Crafts which are now so favored. They 
are well made and strong but simple in construction 
so that their cost is nominal. Opening from this 
living-hall on the north side was a small room fitted 
as a smoking-room and den. Here the walls were 
covered with two-toned dull blue fibre paper, the 
woodwork was stained black. The ceiling to the 
picture rail, which was set at the tops of doors and 
windows, was tinted in a shade of caje au lait that 
was repeated in straight pongee curtains which 
hung at the windows, these were decorated across 
the lower end with a conventionalized stencil design 
in blue, dull old red and black. 

The mistress of the house had not only done this 
work but made and designed the stencil. These 
curtains were very beautiful and Oriental in ap- 



pearance. Some rich bits of Oriental embroidery 
had been converted into pillow covers and were 
used on a long deep window seat, which served as a 
lounging place in this inviting room. The mattress 
pad which covered this seat was upholstered in dull 
blue velveteen, and beside the embroidered pillows 
referred to, there were others covered in raw silk 
in shades of dull green, blue and old red. Hongkong 
wicker chairs were used here, and they also were 
furnished with soft loose cushions. A collection 
of interesting foreign photographs framed in narrow 
flat black frames were well grouped on the walls, 
the blue paper making an excellent background. 
Tabourets and low stands of teak-wood and black 
stained oak were conveniently placed. The stands 
held brass and copper jardinieres with growing 
plants. 

The rug was a Wilton of small Persian pattern, 
reproducing all of the various colors used in the 
room. 

The kitchen, which was only divided from the 
dining-room by a butler's pantry of narrow confines, 
was not the least attractive feature. The standing 
woodwork here was of yellow pine, and had been 
treated with three coats of shipoleum, a tough 
varnish which well withstands heat and moisture, 
and has so high a gloss as to render it sanitary and 
readily cleansed. Above the four-foot wainscot, 
(ceiled, tongued and grooved) the walls were 
covered with a washable paper, of blue and white 
tile design. At the windows were hung curtains 
of blue and white linen crash. There were wide 
sills to these casement windows, and on these were 
set red flower pots in which grew geraniums. The 
cooking utensils had been selected with much care, 
and had decorative qualites as well as utility 
to recommend them. The blue and white enamel 
ware, the long-handled copper saucepans and big- 
bodied brass boilers, added greatly to the attractive- 
ness of this unusual kitchen. The floor was covered 
with blue and white linoleum, and above the range 
the chimney-breast was painted a strong brick 
red in oils. Above the artistic qualities one felt 
in looking at this room the thoroughly sanitary 
and washable possibilities of everything. Floor, 
wall covering, curtains, chimney, all were capable 
of being thoroughly cleansed with soap and water. 
A row of potted flowers added to the quaint effect. 

In the small house, the lower floor of which 
was described above, the wide stair-way leading 
to the upper room was broken midway by a small 
landing; a deep casement window was set here 
with built-in seat below; this seat was upholstered 
with dull green velvet and bore pillows covered 
with raw silk in pastel tones. The treads of the 
stairway were uncovered, stained hke the floor 
below, and finished with two coats of florsatin. 




72 



The Interior Finish and Furnishing of the Small House 73 



The same stain and finish was used on the standing 
woodwork as that in the room from which the stairs 
ascended. 

The walls of the small upper hall were covered in 
a goldenrod shade of grass-cloth which agreed per- 
fectly with the various colors shown in the rooms 
opening from it. The standing woodwork of this 
hall had been treated with ivory eggshell-white 
enamel. The ceiling was tinted in exactly the same 
shade. A small settle and table were here, the latter 
holding a plant; these were of birch stained a brown 
mahogany. The restrained dignity of treatment 
felt in the lower rooms of this house pervaded its 
upper chambers, though in a lesser degree. The 
standing woodwork in all of the rooms is of white 
wood which had been treated with the various 
enamels best harmonizing with the color scheme of 
the room. 

The portion of the front bedroom, — which is also 
the largest, — extending over the veranda below, is 
shown in the picture. A well-wrought-out color 
scheme was used here. The minutest particular 
of every detail has been treated with the same care- 
ful consideration as was given to the selection of 
furniture and wall covering. The latter in this 
room is of two-toned, almost invisible stripe, in dull 
shades of green flock paper (the room faces south); 
the upper third of the wall covered in a glazed Eng- 
lish paper of dainty and exquisite coloring, — pale 
spring blossoms, a mingling of crocus and pink 
spiraea, with foliage in green pastel shades, which 
harmonized perfectly with the deeper shades of the 
same color in the lower wall. The standing; woodwork 
had been treated with ivory eggshell-white enamel, 
like that used in the hall; the picture rail set at the 
joining of the lower wall-paper with the figured upper, 
and also the mold at the ceiling line were treated 
with the same enamel. The mantel was an attrac- 
tive feature of this room, the fireplace being wide 
and deep, holding brass andirons of simple design; 
the mantel itself was suggestive ot Colonial, the wide 
mirror extended almost its length above the narrow 
shelf; the frame of this was dull and entirely with- 
out ornamentation. The tile used about the fire- 
place and hearth was in the shade of jade green, 
slightly deeper in tone than the side walls, and of 
unglazed surface. 

The window treatment was especially good; 
glazed English chintz, repeating exactly the color and 
design of the upper wall, was used as a valance twelve 
inches deep, and for the straight hanging curtains 
outlining the windows reaching to the sill. Next 
the glass were draperies of sheer white muslin with 
tiny embroidered dots; these curtains were made 
with 2^ inch ruffles up the front and were caught 
back on either side and held in place by bands of 
the muslin tied in crisp smart bows; these curtains 
were run by a casing at the top, on slender brass 



extension rods, and set close to the window. The 
glazed chintz curtains were laid in scant folds, the 
stiffness of the material necessitating and calling 
for this treatment. The lower edge of the valance, 
as well as the lower edge and sides of the long cur- 
tains were finished by an inch wide cotton fringe 
which showed white and green. The seat below 
was a dress box, the top being lightly but comfort- 
ably padded and upholstered with the chintz; a 
flounce of which, laid in shallow pleats, completed 
it. The pillows were covered in Parma satin, a 
glossy cotton fabric which launders well. This 
material comes in beautiful tones, those selected 
here being pastel green, soft light yellow and dull 
old rose. The furniture in this room had all been 
treated with the ivory enamel in precisely the same 
tones as the woodwork. The seats of the chair were 
covered with the glazed chintz, as was also the 
winged chair. The large Wilton rug which held 
the centre of the floor was in two tones of mossy 
green, much darker in color but entirely in harmony 
with the wall covering. 

A bed of simple cottage design was kept all in 
white. A large black fur rug was effectively used 
before the fireplace. This strong mass of black 
accentuated and brought out the color scheme of 
the room very beautifully; a touch of black appeared 
again in the frames of the pictures on the wall. 

Upon the pretty dressing-table, crystal candle- 
sticks were used with little fluted shades of pink silk. 
The same color and material was in larger form on 
the crystal lamp which held the centre of the small 
table, placed attractively near the inviting winged 
chair. A book cover made from a bit of dull green 
Venetian brocade and trimmed about with gold 
galloon, lay on the table. Even the small work-box 
played its part in the scheme of the room, it being 
of pale green, faint yellow and pink straw. 

The woman who was responsible for the beauty 
of this house, admitted that this small basket box 
was really accountable for the color scheme of the 
room. "A Christmas box of bonbons it was," she 
said, "and as I was then planning my house, the 
attractive and rather unusual mingling of these 
colors in these particular tones appealed to me. I 
decided to use this for my spools and skeins, and 
from it built up my room. I determined to find a 
wall-paper showing these colors. Imagine my 
pleasure one day in the early spring, to discover dis- 
played in the window of one of the leading shops 
this very paper, with the glazed chintz draped be- 
side it. They insisted in the shop that the entire 
wall covering should be of this figured paper, with 
window draperies and furniture covering of the 
chintz, when, armed with my little basket, I went in 
to try the colors. They harmonized perfectly. My 
own decision, however, was quickly taken, — it would 
be impossible for me to live in a room with walls 




74 



The Interior Finish and Furnishing of the Small House 75 



covered completely with the figured paper, the de- 
sign repeated in the draperies, — and I found, after 
much search, the two-toned stripe in exactly the 
proper shades of green; it is the white light in the 
green that makes this so restful. The curtains, you 
see, are brought only against the plain wall, and to 
my mind the effect is much more attractive. Every 
bit of pink and green and yellow used in this room, 
has been carefully matched and tried out with the 
coloring of the wall paper and chintz, even the Fra 
Angelica angels in the round gold frame above my 
mantel showing the same colors in deeper tones. 
When my room was completed, I felt it needed some 
strong accentuating note, and decided upon the 
purchase of the black fur rug. I searched vainly 
for a rug of the size and quality I wished which 
came within my price; finally I bought two of the 
Japanese goat skins, selecting them from dozens 
that were shown me. These skins show a good 
lustre, and when carefully joined, as they have been, 
the effect, I think, is rather good, and particularly 
satisfactory since they cost me but ;^6.oo each." 

The electric fixtures in the room were simple in 
design and of brush brass, the only elaboration being 
the candelabra effect on either side of the mantel. 
These candelabra were found in a second-hand shop 
and cost ^5.50 for the pair; they were carefully 
cleaned and finished to suit the other fixtures in the 
room, and wired and fitted with electric candles. 

The room over the den, adjoining this apartment, 
one realized at once was intended for a man's room. 
The walls were covered in pewter gray grass-cloth; 
the ceiling of ivory white extended to the picture 
rail. The furniture was of perfectly simple lines 
and comprised a single bed, a chiffonier, some book- 
shelves, an easy chair, a writing table, and some 
smaller chairs — all of comfortable design. The case- 
ment windows were hung with straight curtains next 
the glass, of sheer white organdy, made with three- 
inch hems; over these were placed straight draperies 
of raw silk. The upholstery of the chairs and cover- 
ing of the window seat was of cut green velvet, rich 
and dark in tone; the door curtain was also of this 
material. The furniture was stained, as was the 
woodwork, with black-oak wood tint and given a 
flat dull finish. 

On the writing table much red morocco was used; 
pad, letter-box and ink-well holder, showed a bril- 
liant scarlet. Hunting prints of pink-coated horse- 
men repeated this color on the walls. A rug of 
two-toned Brussels in shades of very dark green cov- 
ered the centre of the floor. All hardware and 
fixtures were of wrought iron. The bold bits of 
brilliant scarlet introduced in this room saved it 
from sombreness. The handling of the plain masses 
of color was extremely well done, the effect being 
strong and characteristic. 

The guest chamber, nursery and bath-rooms Jre- 



main to be described in this very perfect house. The 
bath-room had tiled wainscot to the height of seven 
feet, the tiling being of jade green with flecks of 
white; the upper surface of the sanded wall, and also 
the ceiling, had been painted in pure white, in oil. 
All standing woodwork had been treated with three 
coats of flat lead, followed by two coats of No. 10 
enamel which gave a hard surface with a fine gloss. 
All fixtures were of nickel plate and glass; wherever 
possible glass was used, the rod for towels and the 
shelves for bottles were all of it. The rug of green 
and white was washable, as in fact, was everything 
in this hygienic bath-room. The high diamond-pane 
window was curtained with green and white mus- 
lin. 

The nursery showed the same study of detail as 
the other rooms of the house. The rough plaster 
walls were painted in oil, the last coat being flatted 
by turpentine. From the picture rail to the ceiling 
line, the upper third of the room was covered with 
an attractive nursery paper of English make, known 
as the "Goose Girl Pattern." The design showed 
smiling little maids in sabots, the white of their 
caps repeated again in waddling fat geese which 
followed them in endless procession around the room. 
The ceiling w^as white, as was also the woodwork. 
The diminutive furniture of this room made it emi- 
nently the realm of the baby. Hangings of yellow 
linen some shades lighter than the side walls draped 
the windows over white organdy curtains next 
the glass. One side of the room was given up to 
what appeared to be low bookcases with doors. 
Books, however, filled only a portion of these, the re- 
mainder being utilized as a general storeroom for 
toys; the doors opened easily and were within reach 
of the little hands. The maple floor was left in the 
natural color and finished with florsatin. A two- 
toned rag rug in shades of blue covered the centre and 
the chair cushions wore slips of blue and white linen 
toweling; these could be readily removed and laun- 
dered. 

The guest-room was of northern exposure; the 
side walls were covered with an English paper of 
soft pinkish cream background, against which, 
apparently thrown with lavish hand, were great 
clusters of American Beauty roses. Extending to the 
picture rail, the ceiling was tinted the shade of the 
background. All woodwork, including the picture 
rail, in this room was finished with leaf green enam- 
elacq, a shade exactly repeating the soft whitish 
green color of the foliage of the roses. The casement 
windows were hung with embroidered muslin in pink 
and white, with straight hanging over-draperies of 
thin rose silk, matching the color of the American 
Beauty roses. The bed of brass was dressed simply 
with a white Marseilles spread, and hem-stitched 
linen pillow slips, a treatment that was evidently in 
favor with the mistress of this house, as it was used 



76 The Interior Finish and Furnishing of the Small House 



throughout. A rug of rich, soft crimson Wilton with 
a two-toned border, held the centre of the floor. The 
furniture was of willow, comprising a small round 
table, two easy chairs and a rocker; these chairs were 
upholstered with square pad cushions covered in 
Marlborough velvet in the shade of red of the cur- 
tains. The cushions were caught in with buttons 
and fastened to the backs and seats of the chairs. A 
window-seat was upholstered in the same and made 
an inviting lounging-place with book-shelves built 
in above, within easy reach. A screen, a writing 
table, and a desk chair were of mahogany and com- 
pleted the actual furniture used in this pretty room. 
The book-shelves held a small but choice collection 
of books, varied enough to please all tastes. The 
writing table was well stocked with stationery and 
stamps, and all paraphernalia, including tablets 
and letter-box. The latter were covered in attrac- 
tive brocade which harmonized well with the color- 
ing of the room. The inkstand was of silver. The 
dressing table was complete with all the toilet neces- 
sities. The mahogany candle stand near the bed, 
held, beside the silver candlestick, snufi'er and tray. 



a glass pitcher of quaint design, and a small biscuit 
jar of glass. 

While the amount of money expended — in making 
this really beautiful home complete — was modest, 
the time spent in careful study of effects, the thought 
and the artistic ability which stood for the harmony 
and comfort of the whole was great. Each room 
had its story of origin and growth, — the living-room 
was evolved from the wall-paper and the tapestry 
which was found to match it. The next purchase 
was the large table; this cost $30, but was made of 
ash and put together by hand; in durability it prom- 
ised to last through successive generations; the same 
could be believed of the winged chair, which cost 
^45, well padded and cushioned. These two pieces 
established the precedent in quality for the room. 

A bit of the wall-paper, fabric, and woodwork was 
carried from shop to shop and tried with all selec- 
tions made; this included curtains, rugs, and the 
pillow covers and lamp-shades. No smallest pur- 
chase was ventured without due consideration, and 
to this fact the success of the color effects could be 
attributed. 




A COLONIAL STAIR HALL 



Seacoast Bungalows 

THE bungalows illustrated here are built on the seashore in Essex county, Mass. Number One is built of wood, covered with 
clapboards and painted white. The roof is of shingles and the chimneys are of field stone. There is no inside sheathing, the 
frame timbers of the house being exposed; as may be seen in the view of the living-room. The inside wood trim is of cypress, the 
shellacked floors of polished hard wood, with rugs. There is an open fireplace and abundant shelving is fitted in between the 
timbers of the frame. Bungalow Number Three is built of rough field stone for the lower story, and wood above. Bungalow Number 
Two has stucco walls, green shutters and heavily thatched roof. The living-room and dining-room in this house have an open fireplace. 
The second story bedrooms are reached by a hanging gallery, shown in the interior view. All the fittings are suggestive of sea 
life and most of them were made by ship carpenters. Reference has already been made elsewhere to the adaptability of the bungalow 
type to the various needs of house owners of moderate purse, and for a week-end house at the seashore or a summer cottage, nothing 
can approach it for the satisfaction it gives. 




Plan ot Bungalow Number One 




SEAWARD VIEW OF BUNGALOW NUMBER ONE 



77 



78 



Seacoast Bungalows 





TWO PACIFIC COAST INTERIORS 



Seacoast Bungalows 



79 




LANDWARD VIEW OF BUNGALOW NUMBER ONE 




LIVING-ROOM IN BUNGALOW NUMBER ONE 



80 



Seacoast Bungalows 




< 






o 
o 

P-H 
l-H 

o 





"Aubrey," Whitemarsh, Pa. 

Cope ^ Stewardson, Architects 




THE FRONT 



NEIGHBORHOOD traditions have governed the style of the 
house. In the midst of Revolutionary battle-fields, the 
portico of lofty columns is altogether appropriate. Although not 
much more than ten years old, the observer would be puzzled to 
name its date. Its rough stone walls, thickly coated with white- 
wash, harmonizes well with the rudely shaded irregular flagging 
of the portico floor and the brick walks. One might well be dis- 
posed to believe that it had occupied its present site when the 
soldiers of the Continental army were marching past the foot of 
the hill. 

This house is characteristic of Philadelphia, which contains 
not a few similar forgeries. A house on a hilltop with its 
several rooms exposed to northern winter storms should 



have an urgent reason. Such is the present house, and 
not to have been on the hilltop, and not to have set 
facing northward, would have meant the loss of the greatest charm 
of its site, for the outlook shows the beautiful stretches of the 
Whitemarsh Valley. 

To the southward, in which direction there is no view, the 
house is shaded by a dense grove of trees, and being intended 
for use in summer time only, the shade is of more importance to 
those who live in it than its openness to winter storms. There has 
been no serious attempt at gardening, and while nature has been 
allowed to creep closely up to it on all sides, save the front, so as 
to give it a partly neglected air, it is not without its beautifu 1 
charm. 





First Floor Plan 



Second Floor Plan 



81 



82 



"Aubrey" 





THE REAR WALK 



A CORNER OF THE GARDEN 





^_i.^,^ -'„^.i -^ 



THE ENTRANCE 



ALONG THE FRONT 



"Redcrest Cottage," Guilford, England 



Illustrations by Wetherill P. Trout 




VIEW FROM THE ROAD 



THE views on this and the following page sliow a type of house whicli lias liad a ver\' marked inHuence on American domestic 
architecture. " Redcrest Cottage " is a small house recently erected near Guilford, England, and takes its name from the color 
of the house itself. It is built of red brick irregularly laid with wide white joints on the first story. The upper story and roof are 
covered with bright red tiles, producing a texture and color absolutely unattainable either with slate or shingles. The generous chim- 
neys are typical of England, and indicate large open fireplaces within. The plan is a very delightful one for a small country home, 
and would lend itself to a number of minor modifications. The garden paths are all bordered with box about six inches high. The 
paths are all of pebbles, and the planting of the shrubbery gives the needed privacy to the first story, which, as may be seen, is set 
rather close to the roadway. The southern exposure of the house gives ample access for the summer breezes and the winter sunshme. 
The broad east window of the dining-room affords a beautiful view across the charming valley with cottages dotting the distant hill- 
side. The porch is paved with red tiles, and taken altogether, the iiouse behind its picket fence, embowered in masses of green, and 
softened by the climbing roses presents as charming a picture of domestic life on a moderate scale as one is likely to see in a long 
day's journey. 

8a 



84 



"Redcrest Cottage" 







■■^^■■'■iT^. 



^"t^C^^^^S^Q 



PLAN OF THE HOUSE AND GARDEN 



-n 



.(■-n. 




m~\-,.-.. r i,ii':^~M^ 



Hi HE [Hast Hmp 



SIDE ELEVATION 



Cottages at Roland Park, 
Baltimore, Md. 



T^ OLAND PARK was one of the earliest residential park schemes to be carried to a successful issue in this country. It is situated on 
-^^ the outskirts of the city of Baltimore in a beautiful rolling country, and commands fine views of the surrounding district. It is 
intended for those who prefer the country to the city, yet with all the city conveniences. It is within twenty minutes' ride of the heart of 
the business district, and has a completely appointed club house, golf links, stables, garage, and all the other appurtenances of com- 
fortable living; yet the promoters of Roland Park have from the first very successfully included in their scheme home builders 
of moderate means. So far from making any attempt to exclude these they have been most careful of their interests, and through their very 
competent official architect, Mr. Edward W. Palmer, Jr. are now prepared to co-operate with intending house builders on any desired 
scale of expenditure. Many of the most successful houses in the Park have been built by the Company itself, and sold or leased to resi- 
dents. Those shown in the-accompanying pages illustrate the Roland Park type, although there are others on a much larger and more 
elaborate scale. The Company has already once enlarged its original tract, and is preparing to take again a similar step immediately. 
The property is beautifully wooded in parts, and is in all respects an ideal residence section. 



Vf^ 




MRS. ELEANOR BRANNAN'S HOUSE 

Wyatt & NoLTiNQ, Architects 



85 



Cottages at Roland Park 




Cottages at Roland Park 



87 




MR. R. ROBINSON'S HOUSE 

Wyatt & NoLTiNG, Architects 




SCHEME' W+ ROLAND PARK CO 




Plan of the Ground Floor 



Plan of the Second Flooi 



88 



Cottages at Roland Park 




. MR. McSHERRY'S HOUSE 

Wtatt & NoLTiNG, Architects 





Plan of the Ground Floor 



Plan of the Second Floor 



Cottages at Roland Park 



89 




90 



Cottages at Roland Park 



<i \- ( ' 11 



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CO 

W 

O 

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H 

O *- 

O g 

> - 

rt < 
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CO 



Cottages at Roland Park 



91 




MR. S. C. TOWNSEND'S HOUSE 

Ellicott & Emmaet, Architects 







I^igf^y 




MR. C. WHYTE'S HOUSE 

Wyatt & NoLTiNO, Architects 



MR. H. R. STUBBS' HOUSE 

Ellicott & E.mmahTj Architects 



VI 

Planting About the Home 

^. C. Egan . 



/^NE has not always built himself a home when 
^^ his house is finished. He has found the 
pearl and must furnish the setting. He has en- 
deavored to have his house artistic and homelike, 
but it will stand bleak and desolate unless its environ- 
ments are pleasing. Lawn, shrub, tree and vine are, 
in the main, the pigments that may be blended 
into a coloring that, while enhancing the beauty 
of the house, will add the mystic charm of a home 
feeling. What to plant is a matter of personal selec- 
tion restricted only by want of space and climatic con- 
ditions. How to plant is a question to be consid- 
ered. My experience is that the average man build- 
ing himself a house, does not know many of the sim- 
lest requirements of plant life, and they are all sim- 
ple. 

The lawn is the most important feature, as on it 
depends mainly the dignity and repose so essential. 
The condition of the soil is a paramount question 
here as elsewhere. The main part of it may be 
in a suitable condition for seeding, but that part of 
it (except, perhaps, the top foot) taken out in ex- 
cavating for the cellar, is seldom fit for immediate 
use. Unless desired for filling in deep depressions, 
or for forming the base of a terrace, where a foot of 
good soil may be placed over it, it is better to pile it 
away in some corner where a few winters' frosts may 
mellow it and prepare the, now inert, plant food it 
contains. Composted with fresh manure hastens 
its cure and, of course, enriches it. If the main body 
of the soil is hard and unfit for immediate seeding it 
should be spaded up, or plowed deeply, harrowed 
and leveled before seeding. 

A good plan to pursue, where one has a lot he does 
not intend to build on for a year or so, is to have it 
manured and plowed at once, and planted to corn or 
potatoes or any crop easily hoed. This will put the 
soil in prime condition for a lawn. Cultivate 
even where the house is to stand, as in this instance 
the top eighteen inches is available for leveling or 
tree holes. Do not allow the weeds to mature and 
seed or you will have a weedy lawn at the start. Do 
not plow nearer any tree intended to remain than the 
spread of its branches as the feeding roots extend out 
that far. The space within this circle may be care- 
fully dug up with a spade or garden fork. The 
edges of walks or roadways and any limited area 



near the house had better be sodded. In planting, 
keep your lawn open in the center, confining it to the 
border walks and drives, retaining pleasant vistas 
and shutting out unpleasant views. If you desire 
formal plantings, keep them near the house. The 
house is formal and its immediate surroundings may 
be so. 

The matter of landscape gardening is a too volu- 
minous one to be included in this article, and unless 
one feels capable and desirous of making his home 
and its surroundings reflect his individuality he 
had better engage the services of a competent land- 
scape gardener. A good carpenter may not be a 
good architect, and a good florist or gardener may 
not know how to lay out a place, therefore be careful 
in your selection. The first laying out is the foun- 
dation and if wrong, all is wrong and correcting a 
foundation error is expensive work. A great many 
people engage a competent person to lay out and 
plant their grounds. He does so with an eye to the 
future. He anticipates the size the material will 
reach in time and make the picture he is striving for. 
He has left open stretches of lawns to give breadth 
and dignity and effect. He is justly proud of his 
work and is willing that it may be pointed out as an 
example of his handicraft if the owner will only let it 
alone. Here is where many owners err, they don't 
let it alone. They see a tree or shrub they do not 
seem to have and get it. They naturally seek an 
open space, and down it goes, destroying the har- 
mony and effect originally intended. This is often 
repeated until the open spaces are cluttered up and a 
thing of beauty becomes a tangled wilderness. Do 
not over-plant. In small yards one tree is often 
enough. One good specimen standing alone, mon- 
arch of all it surveys, exhibits its individuality and is 
imposing in its grandeur. In your drives along the 
country roads you have often admired some stately 
tree, and if you look back a moment you will remem- 
ber that it stood alone with all its glories outlined 
against the sky. On large grounds, crowding may be 
admissible where a background of foliage or a wind- 
break is wanted. 

I am going to mention only a few desirable plants, 
all of which are hardy in our climate. If a deciduous 
hedge not higher than five feet is desired, there is 
nothing finer, hardier, or more satisfactory than the 



92 



Planting About the Home 



93 




LOOKING THROUGH THE ROSE ARCHES 




AN EDGE OF THE LAWN 



94 



Planting About the Home 



Japanese Berberis Thunbergtt. It is saying a good 
deal when I state that I consider it, all told, the finest 
shrub introduced within the past fifty years. It is 
one of the earliest to put forth its leaves in the spring, 
a pleasing green all summer. Its flowers are 
inconspicuous and not considered in its attractive- 
ness. In the fall its foliage assumes most bril- 
liant tones of red, and as it gradually falls, discloses 
numerous bright coral berries in pendent rows all 
along the under side of the slightly archmg branches. 
These remain all winter, furnishing a welcome feast 
for the early spring birds. It forms a compact, 
spreading hedge that never should be clipped, for 
then it loses its beauty both in form and berry. I 
have seen many mistakes in planting it on account 
of ignorance of its eventual width. 

Most people plant too near the walk or roadway. 
In time, if happy, it will obtain a width of six to 
eight feet and should therefore be planted fully 
three and a half to four feet away from the walk. 
It is not fastidious as to soil and situation, but does 
not like wet feet in winter. Dry situations suit it 
best and I have seen it used on terraces with effect. 
If one fancies a hedge of roses, the Japanese 
Rosa rugosa, if cut back quite severely each spring, in 
order to keep the foliage close to the ground will be 
acceptable. They come in two colors, one pink and 
one white and should be mixed indiscriminately, and 
may be planted two and a half feet from the walk. 
The large cherry-like heps in generous clusters are 
prominent features in the late summer and fall 
months. 

For porch vines, the Clematis paniculata, and a 
somewhat smiliar, but earlier blooming Clematis 
Flammula, are indispensable, and with them, if one 
is willing to run the chance of disappointment, the 
large flowered hybrids may be used. Clematis 
Jackmani (blue) and its white form, with the white 
Henryi are probably the most reliable. A little 
understood disease attacks them, causing a sudden 
dying back of a seemingly healthy vine. Once in a 
while one escapes and then you have a treasure. 
All of them should be cut back in the fall to within a 
foot or so of the ground. 

Where a permanent woody twiner is favored the 
Akehia quinata is excellent. It is a dainty vine with 
five-fingered leaflets that when silhouetted against a 
moonlit sky is exceedingly attractive. Its dark 
purple, small, quaint looking, but spicy scented 
flowers are not very conspicuous, while its habit of 
retaining its leafage until almost Christmas makes it 
a favorite. Some vines are subject to the visits of 
intruding worms and caterpillars, whose gymnastic 
feats, when disturbed, often shoot them down one's 
neck, but the Akehia has no charms for them and is 
free from their visits. 

The bitter-sweet of our woods, Celastrus scandens, 
makes a pretty winter picture when trained up a 



three-inch iron pipe, having at its top a four-spoked 
iron wheel about twenty inches in diameter for the 
vine to run up into and droop over. Make a good 
deep hole for the vine and fill with rich soil, then dig 
out, in the center, enough soil to allow the insertion 
of a topless and bottomless box, eighteen inches 
square and as high. Set it so that the top is some 
six inches below the level of the surrounding soil, 
set the pipe in the center a foot below the bottom of 
the box, and then fill the box with cement. The 
pipe will then be three feet below the surface and on 
account of the cement block will never be tipped over 
by storms. Plant the vine close to the box, which 
will decay in time, and help it along whenever its 
top is inclined to wander from its support. 

My vine is a glorious sight in winter where we 
are sure to see it three times a day, for it is in full 
view from our dining-room window. Mine is 
eighteen feet high, the vine drooping freely from 
the wheel at the top. 

While the best landscape gardeners decry the 
use of colored foliage in shrubs and trees and it is 
true the use alone of the varied tones of green 
aff'orded by the planting of normal forms, produce 
the most quieting and peaceful efi^ect, some use may 
be made of those having a transitory flame of color, 
which disappears or is much modified as the foliage 
matures. 

The flow and ebb of the season's growth is marked 
by brilliant colorings. In the spring the unfolding 
buds of the oaks and many others are brilliant in their 
colorings, and in the fall, color runs riot among the 
maples and sumachs. Between these periods the 
colors are normal. 

I have a bit of fleeting color to be seen from my 
windows and porch in the spring. At the extreme 
left is a young specimen of Rivers' purple beech, the 
only one in the group holding its color all the season. 
Next to it is a Camperdown weeping elm, always 
green, and above it a scarlet maple, conspicuous in 
its bright fruit in late spring. To the right of the elm 
and close to the bordering ravine trees is a Schwedler 
maple whose foliage unfolds a dark red, gradually 
assuming a bronze tone and eventually becoming a 
dark green. Next to it and much smaller is a Wor- 
leei maple, a light yellow at first gradually fading to a 
slightly yellowish green. Next, but nearer, is a 
young specimen of the European, weeping beech, 
that has not yet attained that age when its foliage 
hangs in weeping folds enabling it to be compared 
to a tumbling cascade. 

Sometimes one has situations too damp for many 
ornamental forms that like a dry, well-drained soil, 
such as the flowering cherries, plums, etc. Here 
the Japanese Cercidiphyllum or the laurel-leaved 
willow will be at home. 

A glance at the trees in the illustrations will dis- 
close one fact; namely that th« foliage of all is 



Planting About the Home 



95 




96 



Planting About the Home 



carried down to the ground, enhancing their beauty. 
Street trees or those Hning walks should have their 
lower branches taken off, but lawn trees, never. 
To have them thus branched one must plant small 
thrifty stock. One nurseryman will quote you cer- 
tain trees, five, six, or perhaps eight feet high, while 
another quotes but three feet, and all at the same 
price. The chances are that the latter are the best, 
the taller ones having been longer in the nursery 
rows are apt to have been crowded and the lower 
branches dead. 

Trees in good soil grow fast enough. Those lining 
the avenues of Washington, D. C, were raised from 
seed sown by the present Curator of the Botanical 
Gardens when he was well advanced in years. 

One word about the "home" of the tree or shrub. 
You are to transplant them from congenial soil and 
conditions. You want them to thrive and become a 
joy forever. So they will if you treat them well. 
The act of transplanting destroys the feeding roots. 
New and tender ones must be formed to penetrate 
the surrounding soil in search of food and moisture. 
The tree, in its enfeebled condition, suffering from 
amputation, cannot succeed unless the surrounding 
soil is loose and friable and contains a fair amount of 
plant food. If your ground has been plowed fairly 
deep and cultivated as suggested, but little further 
work is needed, although care must be taken to have 
that part that comes in contact with the roots friable 



and easily worked. If not plowed or loosened up, 
holes six or more feet in diameter and two deep, 
filled with good soil, should be provided. Shrub and 
vine holes may be four feet in diameter. Never place 
wet, lumpy soil near the roots. Work the soil well 
among, and under the roots, and when they are 
covered, tamp hard, or flush in with a hose. In 
dry weather soak thoroughly once in a while. 

In moving into one's new home why not celebrate 
the event by planting a tree .? Or why not celebrate 
the birthday of the baby of the family in this way ? 
That the event occurs at an improper season need 
not deter you, if time is taken by the forelock. If 
the event occurs in the winter, prepare the hole in 
the fall, filling it in with good soil and dump over 
it a load or two of fresh manure to keep free from 
frost. Get your tree, also in the fall, and plant it 
in a bushel basket, which may be kept in a barn or 
cellar or any place not warm enough to incite growth. 
When the day arrives, remove the manure, plant 
basket and all and cover well with part of the manure. 
The method for summer is on the same principle, only 
no manure is needed and the tree, obtained in the 
spring, is planted with its basket in some spare space 
until wanted, when basket and all is moved. 

A proper metal tag, containing a record, should 
be attached to a limb by a copper ring, say six inches 
in diameter, that may be removed from time to time, 
to prevent it growing into the wood. 




A TOPIARY HEDGE OF CALIFORNIA PRIVET 



A Long Island Garden and Cottage 

Grosvenor Atterhiuy , Architect 




A BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF THE HOUSE AND GARDEN 




THE HOUSE AS EXECUTED 



97 



A Suburban Home 

Wilson ..Eyre, Architect, 





VIEW FROM THE STREET 

THE house shown on this and the two following pages deserves careful attention. 
It is typical of Mr. Eyre's work in two [respects. First, the picturesque 
simplicity of the exterior, and wonderfully homelike domestic air of the interior. 
Built on the outskirts of a large city, the angular plan gives it at once an air of dis- 
tinction among its neighbors. Rough brick is the material on the first story, the 
side walls above being framework covered with rough-cast. The outside window 
sashes are painted white, but all other exterior woodwork brown. The living-room 
is finished in quartered white oak; elsewhere the interior finish is cypress and white 
oak stained or painted. It will be noticed that one of the outside verandas can be 
enclosed with glass in winter. 
The lot measures seventy-six feet 
along the street, and is one hun- 
dred and ten feet deep, the house 
being placed well toward one 
corner of the lot in order that 
the principal living-rooms may 
have an open outlook. One 
enters directly into the stair hall, 
whose most striking feature is 
the stairway itself, boldly expres- 
sive of its construction and ma- 
terial. This and the living- 
room are typical of Mr. Eyre's 
treatment of domestic interiors. 




98 



A Suburban Home 



99 




VIEW FROM THE LIVING-ROOM 




THE LIVING-ROOM FIREPLACE 



I. arc. 



100 



A Suburban Home 




VII 

The Small Garden 



John IV. Hall 



NOTHING can produce a more bountiful source 
of quiet pleasure to the suburban dweller 
than a little garden. The suburban home is 
usually built upon a plot ranging in size from one- 
half to an acre. In either instance there is ample 
space for a home garden where practically all the 
lighter vegetables can be grown in sufficient quan- 
tities for the use of a family of ordinary size. Be- 
sides supplying the table with absolutely fresh vege- 
tables, gathered while crisp with the morning dew, 
an hour, in the late afternoon, spent among the 
plants by the business or professional man is more 
conducive to health and real enjoyment than most 
any other diversion. 

Supposing that there is available for garden pur- 
poses on the suburban home lot the quarter or the 
half of an acre, the question of primary importance, 
how best to prepare and make it on an economical 
and practical basis, is presented. 

The size and place of the garden having been 
determined, it should be enclosed with a fence made 
of wire netting and of sufficient height to prevent 
depredation by chickens or otherwise. 

HOW TO PREPARE THE GROUND 

The soil should be broken fine as deep as the 
plant roots may be expected to grow. This is from 
fifteen to twenty inches, and more effective results 
are obtained by spading than by plowing on a 
limited area. The earth is left fine, loose, and 
mellow far down, so the tender roots may grow 
through it freely. It then holds moisture and lies 
close to the roots, so as to supply them readily with 
food. 

After the ground is thoroughly broken it 
should be fertilized and harrowed or rolled. Where 
the harrow or roller is not at hand, good work can 
be jdone with a heavy rake. Let the soil be well 
prepared before planting; neglect of this will be felt 
all through the season. After the plants are growing 
it is too late to attempt to work the ground beneath 
them. It is also of the greatest importance that in 
preparing the soil it should be in proper condition 
to be worked. What the proper condition is can be 
easily determined by squeezing a little of the soil in 
the hand. If it makes a ball, and sticks to the hand, 
it is too wet; if it breaks hard, it is too dry. To work 



well it should crumble easily and finely, and leave 
very little dirt on the hands. 

Too much care cannot be given to the supply of 
the necessary plant food, of which the chief essentials 
are nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash. Any 
fertilizer used to supply these elements should be 
thoroughly distributed through all the soil to be 
reached by the roots of the plants, and this distribu- 
tion must be made before planting. Turning and 
re-turning the ground, and harrowing or raking, are 
useful for this purpose. There is no rule by which 
a wise selection of fertilizer can be made. It is often 
found that a sandy soil is deficient in the essentials 
of plant food; that a clayey soil contains them in 
abundance, and a limestone soil is likely to contain 
a considerable proportion of phosphoric acid. There- 
tore, what is a good fertilizer on a given soil for one 
crop may be very unsatisfactory for another; the 
matter ot fertilization must after all be very largely 
a matter ot experience trom observing results. 

As a general rule lime may be applied to a soil with 
good results. It corrects acidity, makes clay soil 
more friable and holds sand closer together. Nor is 
it possible to go far wrong in the application of 
humus, a name applied to any thoroughly rotted 
vegetable or animal matter. Humus forms the 
richness of nearlv all good land, and rarely is there 
too much of it. In close-grained, sticky soils, which 
have a tendencv to bake, the humus produces a 
looser texture and a better balance in the reten- 
tion of moisture. On a loose and leachy soil it 
brings the grains closer together and promotes 
chemical activity and at the same time supplies 
plant food. 

Leaves, garden refuse, and barnyard manure 
made into a compost and allowed to decay make 
good humus. Wood ashes are a common and ready 
source of potash, and in addition improve the mechan- 
ical condition ot most soils. The lime in them tends 
to correct sourness and to promote the important 
chemical process of nitrification. Ashes are usually 
tound to render light, sandy soils more moist. 
Cotton-hull ashes are also very useful, furnishing 
potash and phosphoric acid. In the use of com- 
mercial fertilizers care must be taken that a wrong 
use is not made of them. Chemical fertilizers may 
be applied much nearer the time at which they are 
to be used by the plant. A French authority says 



101 



102 



The Small Garden 



for deep rooted plants, fertilizers should be put on 
before breaking the ground; for shallow rooted 
plants, after breaking. 

SEED AND TIME OF PLANTING 

The ground prepared and fertilized, then comes 
the selection of seed and planting. 

It is usually considered enough to buy seed of 
some reputable dealer and depend upon him for 
quality. But it is so important to have good seed, 
and mistakes are so easy, that careful examination 
of the seed some time before planting is advisable. 
Large, heavy seeds produce stronger plants than 
do small, light seed. It is a mistake to plant old 
seed. 

The time for planting in any locality is only known 
by experience, if early vegetables in the open air are 
sought. The blooming of the peach is assigned as a 
time for seeds that will germinate in a cold soil and 
resist a slight frost. Among these are peas, spinach, 
and onion. When the oak leaf breaks from the 
bud is suggested for beets, turnips, corn and tomato. 
Seeds that thrive only in warmer soil, as beans, 
cucumber, cantaloupe, watermelon, squash, and 
okra, may be planted when the blackberry is in 
bloom. The planting must be made, of course, 
with due consideration of the date when the vege- 
table is expected to be ready for use, and if a continu- 
ous supply is desired through the season, several 
plantings at different dates must be made. These 
are known as successional plantings. 

MAKING THE ROWS 

Wheel tools will be found of great advantage in 
cultivation and for this reason the rows should be 
long and continuous. If enough of one kind of 
vegetable to make a row across the garden is 
not wanted, several kinds may be put in the same 
row. 

Let the rows run east and west when practicable, 
so as to obtain the best sun effects. A line should 
be used to keep the rows straight and parallel to each 
other. But little extra time will be consumed in 
using the line and the better results, aside from the 
appearance, will more than repay the additional 
trouble. 

CONDITION OF THE SOIL 

The soil should be moist when the seeds are put in. 
The earth should be firmed above the seed by patting 
it lightly with a hoe. This is to make sure that the 
soil is brought close against the seed. Small, weak 
seeds must not be put in ground that is not thor- 
oughly prepared. It is well to sow some large seed 
of vigorous growth, such as radish or turnip, with 



celery and other small, weak seeds. The added 
seed come up, breaking any crust which may have 
formed. The radish or turnips must be pulled 
out as soon as the other plants appear. Sow the 
seed much thicker than the plants can be success- 
fully grown and when the first true leaves appear, 
thin to the proper distance and avoid loosening the 
roots of plants that are left. 

DEPTH OF PLANTING 

The depth of cover depends upon the size and 
strength of the seed, its habits of germination and 
early growth, the soil, and the season of planting. 
Planting too deep is frequently a cause of failure to 
come up. Warmth, air and moisture are necessary 
to germination. In the early spring moisture is 
usually abundant, while warmth is lacking. The 
soil is warmest near the surface, hence the cover 
should be shallower than in summer, when warmth 
is abundant and moisture is lacking in the surface 
soil. Weak seeds should have less cover than 
vigorous seeds. As a general rule the depth of 
planting is indicated on the original package by the 
seedsman, and it is safe to follow his directions in 
that respect. 

TRANSPLANTING 

Plants from the hotbed or cold frame should be 
transplanted soon after the formation of the first 
true leaves. The ground into which the plants are 
to be set should be in the best of condition and the 
weather cloudy. The earth should be pressed 
closely about the roots of the plants in their new 
place. In removing plants from place to place 
preserve as near unbroken as possible the mass of 
dirt about the roots. If the leaves of the young 
plants are clipped off about half-way back from the 
tips, the evaporation from them will be lessened 
that much and the roots will have an opportunity 
to establish connection with the soil and secure ample 
moisture before the full demand from the leaves is 
renewed. By this process the plants' chances for 
living will be materially increased. 

CULTIVATION 

The chief purposes of cultivation are to keep down 
the weeds and to maintain in the soil a supply of 
air and moisture favorable to plant growth. The 
moisture in the soil about a vigorous plant is rapidly 
carried away by evaporation from the leaves. As 
long as the ground contains an ordinary water 
supply for several feet below the surface a steady 
flow of rnoisture goes upward through the minute 
spaces between the soil grains. The upper layers 
of soil are kept from becoming dry by this flow. 



The Small Garden 



103 



But when the rainfall is scant the moisture in the 
lower soil also becomes exhausted and the plant 
curls up and dwindles. The gardener must provide 
against the occurrence of this condition. It is not 
enough to remedy it; he must prevent it. One of 
the most efficient means is a mulch, w^hich is most 
conveniently made of the surface soil. 

TIME FOR THE SOIL MULCH 

Usually as soon as a rain is over the atmosphere 
is free of moisture, and evaporation from the soil 
sets in. The water that has just soaked in comes 
up through the little pores between the soil grains 
and passes off from the surface of the soil into the 
air. 

The gardener's aim with the mulch is to save 
this moisture and send it through his plants. If the 
little pipes or tubes formed by the pores of the soil 
are broken, the flow through them is checked and 
evaporation from the ground is much lessened. It is 
only necessary then in order to save the moisture 
for the plants, to break up the surface of the soil 
with a rake or other implement. 

It is a serious mistake to suppose that so long as 
the surface remains moist the soil below is well 
supplied with water. A damp surface may mean 
only that moisture is rapidly evaporating into the 
air. As often as the surface becomes solid it should 
be stirred with a rake or hoe. As a rain or even a 
shower compacts the soil at the surface, the common 
notion that it renders raking or shallow plowing less 
necessary is precisely contrary to the fact. It is then 
especially that the surface should be broken. The 
same is true after irrigation. The raking or plowing 
should be done as soon as the soil will not cake 
when squeezed in the hand- 

IRRIGATION 

Frequently dry weather continues so long that it 
is impossible to preserve sufficient moisture by tillage 



or any sort of mulching. It then becomes necessary 
to water the garden. Where there is connection 
with city water works the supply is ample and easily 
reached. In other locations various forms of 
cisterns and reservoirs are employed. 

In watering, the earth should be thoroughly wet, 
so that the moisture will get to the lower and outer 
roots of the plants. In order to check evaporation 
after sprinkling, the surface should be broken as 
soon as dry enough to work. The watering should 
be repeated when it is evident, upon careful watching, 
that more moisture is necessary. It must be remem- 
bered that the small, active roots, which take up 
moisture and plant food, are most numerous at the 
extremities of the large roots and at a distance from 
the stem. 

The water must be so given as to reach these 
small roots. Water at any time when the plants 
need it, and water thoroughly. It may be well 
to keep in mind, however, that in the spring 
the best results are obtained by watering in the 
middle of the day, because the mornings and even- 
ings are cool; in the summer, at evening because the 
days are hot and a great part of the water given 
would be evaporated immediately. 

CONCLUSION 

There doesn't appear to be any reason why the 
suburban dweller should not have a home garden 
affording at once both healthful exercise and profit. 
An instance is in mind where a quarter acre garden 
in a suburb of Washington City was made to supply 
a family of six persons with fresh vegetables all 
through the season, in addition to which there 
were sold to neighbors, at current market prices, vege- 
tables to the approximate amount of sixty dollars. 
The amount received from the sales alone was 
more than twice as much as the cost of the labor, 
the fertilizers, and the seeds used in making the 
garden. 




VIII 
What Six Thousand Dollars Will Do ' 



W. P. R. P ember, Architect 



TN a dwelling of this class the difficulties of the 
'*■ problem are doubled by the fact that light can be 
relied on only from the front and rear, as rooms 
lighted from the sides with neighbors but a few feet 
away are at best in a sort of semi-darkness and cer- 
tainly lack every element of privacy. It is the object 
of this article to show that a house can be built 
economically on a lot 60 feet wide and 150 feet deep, 
taking the maximum advantage of both front and 
rear light and securing airiness, convenience and 
privacy to the occupant. In brief, to accomplish 
this end a house has been designed that gives to all 
the living-rooms of the house either a back or a front 
exposure and does not allow the kitchen, pantry and 
sheds to monopolize all the rear light, often the best 
attainable in the house. There are no important 
windows in either side in any of the larger rooms. 

The house is located well back from the street and 
about centrally between the side lines of the lot. A 
straight path leads from the sidewalk to the entrance 
porch in the corner between the main house and the 
kitchen wing and from it one steps into a commodi- 
ous vestibule. On the left is a passage leading to the 
kitchen, also to a toilet and to the cellar stairs. This 
passage allows the maid to answer the door directly 
without passing through any other room. 

From the vestibule also opens the hall. To the 
left is the staircase, to the right the living-room and 
ahead is a glimpse across the veranda and right down 
the garden. 

The living-room is large and comfortable, with 
windows on the sides affording cross ventilation and 
coolness in summer. A generous fireplace is opposite 
the entrance, flanked on either side by built-in book- 
cases. Towards the street is a convenient window 
seat, while on the garden side a French window opens 
from the room out to the veranda. 

Across from the living-room is the dining-room, 
also large and airy, with bay windows for flowers at 
one end and a French window opening onto the 
veranda. On one side of the fireplace is a built-in 
china closet, on the other a door leads through the 
pantry to the kitchen. The range, sink and table 
are all compactly arranged; while a nook of the 
kitchen with a casement window opening towards 
the street afi^ords cross ventilation and a pleasant 
sitting place for the maid — a place seldom found in 

104 



houses where there is no servants' room down-stairs. 
Connected with the kitchen is a rear hall containing 
space for a refrigerator and leading to a lattice en- 
closed rear porch. On the opposite side access is 
also gained to the stairs, thus avoiding the expense of 
second stair. 

Up-stairs are four bedrooms, bath and dressing- 
room, all with ample closets and two of the rooms 
with fireplaces. On the third floor are two servants' 
rooms and ample storage. 

The veranda is an intimate part of the house, con- 
necting for summer use dining-room, hall, and living- 
room and forming an outdoor sitting and dining- 
room for summer; the table may be set here and 
meals served through the dining-room. 

From the veranda stretches the garden joined to 
the house by a low terrace. This garden is designed 
to make the rear portion of the lot appear at its very 
largest. The central feature is a long simple panel of 
turf centering on the veranda and entirely surrounded 
by a panel walk. To right and left of the panel are 
generous flower borders for annuals and perennials, 
while at the end is a simple pergola with plastered 
posts and hewn beams supporting a trellis for grapes, 
clematis, wistaria, etc. This pergola is semicircular 
in plan and surrounds a simple little pool for aquatica. 
Backing up the flower borders and the pergola is a 
border of hardy shrubs, massed to give pleasing 
effects in bloom and foliage and interspersed with a 
row of BoUeana poplars or Norway maples, which 
form a background to the garden and cut off the 
unpleasant features of neighboring backyards with- 
out giving undue shade. Space is arranged at the 
side for a bed for cut flowers and a laundry yard, and 
at the extreme rear for vegetables and cold 
frames. 

The house is designed to be executed in a warm 
gray plaster with all trim painted white, the roof of 
shingles stained a dark moss green, all chimneys 
plastered on the brick, blinds painted a dark olive 
green. 

In the interior all finish is very simple: of white 
wood painted, the floors of No. i maple, stairs of 
oak with cherry rail, simple brick and tile fireplaces 
and hearths. 

The actual cost of the house including the garden, 
walks, pool and pergola is $6082.40. 



What Six Thousand Dollars Will Do 



105 




First Floor Plan 



Second Floor Plan 



A Dutch Colonial House 



E. G. IV. Dietrich, Architect 



ARTISTIC success always results from a process 
of elimination. The scheme suggested in any first 
sketch is always much more elaborate than the perfected 
design. As one looks at the house shown on this page, it is 
evident that the value of simplicity has been fully recognized, 
and severe restraint exercised by the architect to produce 
the desired effect. There has been no effort either on the 
exterior or interior of the house for elaborate effects. The 
first story is laid up with a gray sandstone laid as coursed 
ashlar, while the gables and second story and roof are 
shingled and stained. The second story rooms are 
not materially smaller, as additional space has been 
gained by building out over the porch. Natural wood fin- 
ishes are used throughout, producing beautiful tones of 
color in harmony with the simple color scheme of the walls 
and furnishings. Each piece of furniture has been very 
carefully selected for the particular place it occupies in the 
house. There is a freshness of tone in the rugs and hang- 
ings, and the wall surfaces are treated broadly as best suited 
for the display of pictures. Two servants' rooms and 
storage are available in the attic. The setting of the house 
with reference to the street and lawns and trees is very satis- 
factory. The telegraph pole in the foreground is an object 
lesson of the characteristic American indifference to gratui- 
tous ugliness. (Blot it out with a strip of white paper and 
note the difference.) 





THE STREET FRONT 




First Floor Plan 



Second Floor Plan 



106 



IX 



Some Hints on Wall Decoration 



Leila Mechlin 



IF one is furnishing as well as decorating, the 
problem is comparatively simple, for then a 
scheme of color can be determined upon and 
carried out with consistency, but in the other event 
it is sometimes necessary to call a compromise. 
There are certain hard and fast rules, however, 
which will be found applicable to all conditions, 
chief among which is the axiom of simplicity — the 
common use of plain, low-toned colors. For north 
rooms with little or no sunshine warm tints should 
be employed, the varying shades of pink and 
red, of buff and yellow; whereas, in south rooms, 
flooded with light, cool colors, such as blues, greens 
and grays, are best suited. These must be selected 
with reference to the woodwork. It is as incon- 
gruous to combine red wall covering with cherry 
or mahogany doors and window frames, as to trim 
a crimson gown with terra-cotta velvet; and yet this 
is something which few decorators seem to compre- 
hend, though one, who was reasoned with once, was 
known to declare that he himself did prefer '"armony 
to contrast." 

As to the kmds of wall covering there is an endless 
variety, ftom silk tapestry down to fifteen cent paper. 
Japanese grass-cloth, decorative linen crash and 
burlap aire being much used to-day and in many cases 
with excellent effect, and common calcimine, or 
water-color wash, is not to be despised. These, 
unless the ceilings are high, can be put on without a 
border, being finished by a moulding like the stand- 
ing woodwork, the ceiling tint being carried to this 
mould. Cartridge paper of course is good, and some 
excellent effects can be produced with two-toned 
papers. Figured patterns are not bad for bedrooms, 
but great care should be exercised in the choice of 
these; spotted devices should be eschewed and con- 
ventional rather than naturalistic arrangements 
chosen. A very awful effect in wall covering is a 
paper simulating a bright colored tapestry, hanging 
in folds. It was a clever imitation and the result is, 
that upon inspection the entire room takes on an 
undulating motion which in time proves ver}' dis- 
concerting. Small bedrooms papered with large 
flaring peony, chrysanthemum and rose designs 
are also apt to prove extremely annoying. These 
sometimes in combination with plain papers, used as 



a deep border, have been made effective in rooms 
remittently occupied; such, for example, as a guest's 
chamber, but even they conflict with the use of 
pictures or other decorations. 

An interesting effect is produced by the use of a 
plain paper with a cut-out, figured border. A charm- 
ing bedroom, for instance, was made by placing as a 
finish to pearl gray walls a festooned border, a foot 
in width, of roses and green-gray garlands cut out 
along the lower margin. A dining-room in another 
tasteful home gave equally pleasing effect in green 
walls with a foliage border treated after the same 
manner. 

Rooms with little furniture, or for use on gala 
occasions, will stand more elaborate decoration than 
living-rooms, commonly well filled; and likewise the 
choice and arrangement of pictures should be made 
with a view to their environment-making qualities. 

But very different pictures are suitable for different 
rooms. One excellent arrangement that I call to 
mind was in a home where high-keyed, decorative 
water-colors were placed in the drawing-room; etch- 
ings in the music-room; and rich, colorful oils in 
library and living-room. If pictures are hung at 
all in a hallway, they should be of a much more 
formal order than those in other parts of the house — 
architectural compositions, decorative schemes and 
the like. 

A wall should never be over-crowded with pictures. 
Each should be given a fair space and as good a 
light as possible. This matter of space is often 
most vexing as nothing is more awkward than an 
unbalanced arrangement — a heavy picture in a small 
space. There was a time when everything came in 
pairs; when the mantel had a vase at each end; an 
identical frame on either side. That was overdoino; 
the balance principle, but at present the pendulum 
has swung too far the other way, and many walls 
and mantels look as though the pictures and orna- 
ments had been thrown at them indiscriminately. 

The framing of pictures is another all-important 
question, and one too often overlooked, Gilt is 
good, but it should be of a subdued tone rather than 
freshly shining. Wood for etchings and engravings 
is very suitable and more durable than gilt. 



107 



A New Jersey Cottage 



I 



George T. Pearson, Architect 



4Pl 




THE FRONT ELEVATION 



THIS plan has been arranged to secure within the limits of a small rectangle the appearance of a large house with the utilization 
of every square foot of space. As may be seen, the principal vistas on the first story are carefully arranged with this end in view. 
The outside walls are plainly finished with header bricks for the first story, with a second story of frame covered with white pebble 
dashing between the timbering. The roof is of shingles, and there is a cellar under the entire area of the house. The main hall has 
chestnut wood finish with silver gray stain, and the remaining rooms are painted wood finish. Details of the mantels, stairway, arch 
to hall alcove and china closets are simple. The floors throughout are of narrow boards and oil finished. The house is very substantially 
constructed, and the plumbing, heating and cooking apparatus and appliances are of the best class. The house was built for ^^5,700, 
in a southern New Jersey village, far enough away in the country not to be dominated by city prices. 





Plan of the First Story 



Plan of the Second Story 



108 



Some English Suburban Houses 



H, T. Buck/and &f H. Farmer, Architects 




PyfiLlC ffCAC' 



AhOVSEKAPDENATKmLmRTH^BKKLANbWAIfMtR-AQCHTS 




A HOUSE AT KENILWORTH 

The South Front and Garden 




THE KENILWORTH PROPERTY 



THE NORTH FRONT 



109 



110 



Some English Suburban Houses 




THE DINING-ROOM OF THE KENILWORTH HOUSE 




THE STUDY OF THE KENILWORTH HOUSE 



Some English Suburban Houses 



111 




A HOUSE AT EDGBASTON 




THE DRAWING-ROOM OF THE EDGBASTON HOUSE 



112 



Some English Suburban Houses 




PLAN OF THE EDGBASTON PROPERTY 




A HOUSE AT LYNDEN END 



The Old Red Rose Inn of 
"Stoke Pogis" 



Villa Nova, Pa. 



THERE are so many charming suggestions for a private house in this delightful old Pennsylvania Inn, which has been most carefully 
conserved as nearly as possible in its original condition, that no apology is needed for its inclusion in the pages of this book. It 
is so thoroughly domestic in its character, and so appealing in the texture and form of the composition, that one feels quite ready to 
duplicate it for a private residence. Some of the work shown is, of course, obviously modern; but only modern in the sense that it is 
new, and there is no incongruity felt in any view of the house. The illustrations speak for themselves, and need no description. 























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THE INN FROM THE HILLSIDE 









113 



114 



The Red Rose Inn 




THE VERANDA 





THE VISITORS' ENTRANCE 



THE PATH TO THE TERRACE 



The Red Rose Inn 



115 




ONE CORNER OF THE HOUSE 




A PORTION OF THE PERGOLA ENCLOSING THE QUADRANGLE 



116 



The Red Rose Inn 




THE KITCHEN WING 








THE SMOKE HOUSE 



Plan of the Property 



The Red Rose Inn 



117 




THE WALK FROM THE PERGOLA TO THE HOUSE 




THE SPRING HOUSE 



118 



The Red Rose Inn 




Ornamental Hedges 



Photographs by J. Franklin Meehan 




BOX HEDGES IN AN OLD MARYLAND GARDEN 



ABOUT seven-tenths of the material used tor defensive hedges or geometrical gardens is either Box Hedging {Buxus sempervtrens) 
or California Privet {Ltgustrum oval i folium); the former for the reason that it has always been associated with old garden work and, 
owing to its dwarfed size or habit of slow growth, requires little cutting to keep it to the proper height. California Privet, owing to its 
vigorous growth and ability to withstand severe pruning is probably the most universally used of the hedge plants, as it holds its leaves during 
the greater part of the winter, and its value is greatly enhanced where a thick hedge is required and evergreen would not succeed. So 
readily does it admit of pruning that there are instances where privet hedges from twelve to fifteen years of age have been kept inperfect 
condition at a height of fifteen or eigiiteen inches. 

Too much cannot be said in favor of Azalcd anurna for garden work ; being naturallv of a dwarfed habit, it is especially adapted for use 
in low hedges. It is usuall\- classed with the evergreens, as the foliage remains on the plant all winter. Its main crop ot rose colored 
flowers is borne in the spring, but a ligJiter bloom is frequently found during the entire summer. It will thrive in almost any location, but 
in its natural state is usually found in light sandy soils. 

Where a dwarf evergreen hedge is required Juniperus aurea stands at the head of the list. Naturally of small size, it is readily retained 
at a proper height. Frequent shearing makes the wood compact, and improves the color, since the golden foliage appears on the tips of the 
young growth. 

Thorough preparation of the ground is absolutely necessary to the success of an\- hedge, and more particularh' so in connection with the 
setting of hedges in garden work. The trench in which the plants are to be placed should be at least two feet wide and eighteen inches deep. 
In heavy clay soils, six inches added to these dimensions will prove beneficial. Well rotted manure should be placed in the trench to the 
depth of six inches and a light covering of earth scattered over it before planting of the stock is begun. 

Possibly the most important question in hedge cultivation is concerned with the selection of the plants. The }oung feeding roots 
are the life of the plant. The requirements of a perfect hedge are perfect form and perfect foliage; these only follow trom perfect 
health, and perfect health is dependent upon the feeding roots. It is therefore necessary to so handle the plant that a good supply of 
fibrous roots may be forned. Thi> can be done by frequent transplanting. The stock should be at least two or three years old, and 
have been transplanted for at least oie year and be from twelve to twenty inches high, according to the variety. 

Finely pulverized dry soil should be used, well placed among the roots, and thoroughlv settled before the remaining soil is added. A 
thorough mulching of the entire surface is important. 

No pruning of the evergreen hedge should be done after the first shearing except during a period when the growth of the wood is about 
three-quarters formed. Neglect to observe this practice is the cause of nine-tenths of all failures in evergreen hedges. 

The fundamental principle to be observed in the care of all hedges may be summed up in a few \vords. Keep the plants in a healthy 
growing condition; prune at the proper time, and with as much care and consideration as would be given to a delicate piece ot machinery. 

119 



120 



Ornamental Hedges 




THE SPRING FLOWERING OF AZALEA AMOENA 























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